The vault
by weebee
Summary: A pile of story ideas. I really have to remember to rewrite the summery, next time.
1. Finding a home

Finding a home.

Yet another fic that looked good when I started, but had some bad execution... I am already cultivating a rewrite of this, however you can have the original to chew on if you want. I think that this versionh has my one shot, Ranma's final Solution, in it somewhere or other... a bit of humor if you get bored, even if some of you have already read it before.

Something creative by Weebee.

Disclaimer. If I owned Ranma, "The contrary jewel" episode would NOT exist. Since it does, I don't own Ranma.

Summary. Ryoga finally succeeds in his quest to get rid of Ranma, Sending him to another dimension with a magical artefact. (Can anyone say Dais Ex machina?) In this world, Genma Saotome's son died at age 10, while undergoing the Neko-Ken training…

WARNING! Chapter one is DARK! VERY, VERY DARK!

Chapter 1. Bloody Valentine.

Ryoga Hibiki sat on the roof of the Tendo Dojo, looking at the small silver medallion in his hands. Spinning it from finger to finger, he wondered weather he should really use it on Ranma. Thinking of this, he remembered the warning of the man who had sold it to him, somewhere in Osaka.

/Flashback/

Ryoga walked down the dusty streets of Osaka, Trying to dredge up enough French to get by and ask for directions. As he saw the same small stall for the fifteenth time, he looked up into the sky and bellowed "Ranma! This is all your fault! If only I could beet you and then you would never harm Akane again!" After his extra long anti-Ranma rant, Ryoga turned to see the owner of the stall staring at him strangely.

"What do you want?" He snapped irritably. He was usually much more polite than this to people other than Ranma, however he had been lost in that really big library a while back for a good week and was losing patience with everything.

"I couldn't help but notice you have a curse." The old man running the stall said, putting a finger to the side of his head.

Ryoga was in his face in an instant. "How do you know that?"

"Well, it's circulating through your aura and very visible. Quite an intricate curse, too. Lots of power."

Ryoga snarled. "Yeh, and it's all Ranma's fault!"

The man blinked. "So, this Ranma is one of your enemies, then?"

Ryoga nodded.

"Well then, I may have something of interest to you here…" The man muttered, bending down under the counter of his stall and rummaging through some old boxes. With a cry of victory, he came back up holding a silver medallion with a picture of a pig on it. (1)

"You tryin to make fun of me?" Ryoga snarled, just barely holding back from blowing the man's stall up with a shi shi hokodan.

"No, not at all. This little item is a powerful magic artefact. It converts the magic used in most curses into spiritual energy. It will get rid of your little problem, whatever it is, and funnel all of it's power right into your chi reserves."

Ryoga blinked. "Y… you mean I'll be cured of the pig AND get enough power to beat Ranma?"

The store owner nodded. "But it does have a problem…" He started, before being cut off by Ryoga getting into his face and yelling "How Much?"

The man shrugged. "Well, I'd say about 40,000 yen but if you were willing to give it back to me afterwards, I'd give it to you for 5,000."

Ryoga whipped a small wallet out of his backpack, pulled out 50,000 yen and laid it down on the counter. "I'll take it!" he said, before grabbing the medallion and pocketing it.

"But sir, the warning!" The old man yelled, as Ryoga ran out of earshot. As Ryoga was about to turn around to see what the old man was talking about, he was hit with a bucket of water and walked off, dragging his pack in his teeth.

/End Flashback./

"What was that old man's warning…" Ryoga thought, still flipping the medallion from finger to finger. Just as he was about to hop off the roof of the Dojo to go find the man and ask him, he heard Akane's voice.

"Ranma No BAKA!"

"Ranma! What have you done to Akane!" He shouted, as he hopped down to the Tendos' front door.

Ranma backed away from a fuming mad Akane, trying to think what he had done wrong this time. Things had been better since the failed wedding a few months ago, however he could still inadvertently stick his foot in his mouth. Tonight had been an excellent example.

Kasumi had gone to see a sick friend in hospital, saying that she would be back later on and that the rest of the family would have to fend for them selves. Akane had immediately volunteered to cook, causing everyone but Ranma to run out and get takeout. Now he was stuck here, having insulted Akane's cooking, and he was about to be pounded.

"A-Akane… I'm sorry Okay? I just meant that you should try your cookin before survin it, that's all."

Akane instantly stopped and blinked. "Really, Why?"

Ranma stood there, surprised and relieved that it had worked. "Um… Most chefs try they're cookin before servin it to make sure it tastes good… It's like a Kata in martial arts." He said, relating cooking to the only thing he really understood.

"…Alright." Akane said, hesitantly picking up a forkful of food off of the plate she was holding and putting it in her mouth. Two seconds later, she fell over in a dead faint.

"Jeash…" Ranma muttered, picking Akane up off of the ground and walking towards the stairs. "Maybe I shoulda just tried it… I don't think she's got the constitution to survive this stuff…"

Just as Ranma was stepping onto the first step, he heard Ryoga's battle cry.

"For what you have done to Akane, Prepare to die!" Laying Akane against the wall next to the stairs, Ranma jumped away as Ryoga imbedded his umbrella into the second step up.

"Jeash Pig boy. She just tried her own cookin. I didn't do nothin." Ranma said, dodging a hammer fist from the lost boy.

"How dare you let her try her own cooking! You know that stuff's toxic to normal people!" Ryoga yelled, tearing off several of his bandanas and throwing them at his rival.

Dodging the new flurry of blows, Ranma flipped into the back yard, closely followed by Ryoga.

As the battle continued, Akane recovered from her own food enough to stagger to the back door, seeing Ranma and Ryoga fight.

"Ranma, Ryoga! Stop!" She yelled, but the two kept right on going.

Ranma got through a flurry of bandanas and an umbrella strike to give Ryoga a few hundred jabs to the stomach with the Amaguriken, sending him into the wall of the Dojo.

Ryoga picked himself up, gasping for breath. 'Screw the consequences. I'm gunna beat Ranma here and now!' Ryoga thought, pulling the medallion out of the pants pocket that he had slipped it into on the roof. Bringing his aura up, he felt two distinct pulling sensations inside his body before a massive green, black and gold aura flared up around him. "Ranma, Prepare to die!" He yelled, grabbing the entirety of the aura and shooting it at his nemesis in a colossal blast of power.

Now, there is something about the artefact that Ryoga possessed, which he really should have known. That was, that when the artefact pulled energy from it's host's curses, the curses effects manifested in the blast. Since the effect of Ryoga's drowned piglet curse was just transformation and Ranma already had a Jusenkyo curse, it just became raw blasting power. Of course, Ryoga forgot his second curse. That of no sense of direction. When it was poured into the artefact, it was interpreted as a transportation spell to a random place, time and dimension… Luckily, Ranma stayed pretty close spatially and temporally to where he started… dimensionally however…

Ryoga blinked rapidly as he shielded his eyes from the blast that he had created. Although it was about the same size as a large shi shi hokodan, it was about 100 times as powerful.

"R-ryoga… what have you done…" Akane breathed, as she looked into the crater that was created by the blast. No trace of Ranma remained.

Ryoga jumped into the air exultantly, throwing an arm up in victory, until he saw Akane glairing at him. "What's wrong Akane?" He asked, blinking.

"Y… you killed him Ryoga… You didn't just beat him… you you…" Akane ran into the house, Crying.

Ryoga finally realized what the lack of a body in the crater meant. Either Ranma had escaped, and since Ryoga couldn't see him anywhere or feel his chi that wasn't likely, or Ryoga had literally vaporised him.

Ryoga's hands started to shake as he sank down to his knees and began to cry. "R…Ranma.. This isn't all your fault…" He cried, uncaring of the fact that it had started to rain and he had not changed.

Nodoka Saotome walked down the street, carrying two bags of groceries. Sighing, she fingered the Katana in her obi and considered what she had been considering since Genma had come back without her son six years ago. She could still remember the day, when Genma had staggered in the door, scratches all over his body and blood stains on his Gi. It turned out that Ranma, in a state of feral rage, had attacked Genma and ended up breaking his neck when he slammed into a tree. Genma had never told her WHY Ranma had been so angry but she had an idea… but if she lost Genma, she would have nothing left, so she withdrew her hand from the obi and continued down the street.

As She turned towards the street her house was on, she couldn't help but notice an intense flash of light from an alley between a nearby house and a small apartment building. Walking cautiously into the alley, she drew her Katana and brandished it threateningly in front of her.

As she crept further and further into the alley, Nodoka noticed a battered form laying on the ground. The person was covered in burns, and his tattered clothing was smoking slightly. Gasping, Nodoka dropped her Katana and groceries, crouching down next to the severely injured boy.

Pulling out a small cell phone that Genma had insisted she carry for emergencies, Nodoka called an ambulance and tried to see what she could do for the boy in the meantime.

Genma Saotome scowled as he sat in the waiting room of Dr. Tofu's clinic, his wife pacing nervously in front of him.

"Whoever the boy is, he'll be fine." Genma muttered, irritated at being interrupted in his latest Shogi game with Soun Tendo over some boy Nodoka had found on the street.

"Um, Mr and Mrs Saotome?" Doctor Tofu asked, poking his head out of the back room of the clinic. "The boy's awake and he's asking for either you or the Tendos. He also seems slightly incoherent."

"Asking for us?" Nodoka wondered, pulling Genma up and walking into the clinic's small back room.

The teen aged boy in the bed sat up and grinned at Her and her husband, seeming a lot better than he had been when he was in the alley. "Hey mom, Pops." The boy said, "Sorry 'bout you guys havin to drag me to the clinic. Ryoga's last attack kinda floored me…"

Nodoka gasped as she noticed something familiar about the boy. His hair was pulled back in a tight pigtail and his eyes were a distinctive blue grey colour. "Y… you're dead…" She stammered, her face turning white.

Ranma blinked. "Um… no, I aint." He turned to Dr. Tofu, "Am I doc?"

Tofu shook his head, looking confused at Mrs. Saotome's reaction.

"You Demon!" Genma yelled, Charging past his wife and towards the bed.

"Pop?" The boy asked, jumping out of the bed as the older man smashed into it. "What in hell 're ya talking about?"

"young man," Tofu interjected, "What's your name?" As he asked this, he reached over and paralysed Genma with a shiatsu strike.

"C'mon doc, don't tell me ya don't recognise one of your most frequent patients…" The boy said, chuckling nervously. "It's me, Ranma."

Just then, Nodoka ran forward and hugged the rather startled Ranma, crying on his shoulder and whispering, "You're alive…" over and over again.

"C'mon mom." The boy said nervously, "You keep cryin like that n' you're gunna trigger the curse…"

A few minutes later, after Nodoka had finished crying and Tofu had convinced Genma not to attack Ranma on sight, the four of them sat in chairs in Tofu's office. "Alright." Tofu started, "Ranma, How did you end up so badly injured… and how did you heal so quickly?"

Ranma shrugged. "I was fighting Ryoga. He thought I'd hurt Akane or somethin… Anyway, he pulled this weird silver thing outta his pocket and used it to amplify his aura. Next thing I know, I'm bein hit with a massive Shi Shi Hokodan and waking up in the clinic."

Tofu nodded and then got up, pulling a heavy leather tome down from a shelf and looking through it. "Hmm… Lion roar shot… are you telling me that Hibiki san can pull off chi techniques?"

Ranma nodded. "Um.. yeh. So can I." Saying this, Ranma formed a yellow ball of energy in his hands. "Now can ya tell me why mom n' pop flipped out so bad when I showed up?"

Nodoka spoke up at this point. "R-Ranma… You died six years ago in a training accident… or at least that's what Genma has told me." She glared at her husband, who cowered back in a corner of the room.

"What's a matter pops. I coulda sworn you'd be playin with a tire and holding an "I'm just a cute Panda" sign by now. Your curse acting up or something?"

"Curse?" Tofu interjected, looking curiously at Ranma.

"Yeh, y'know. His Jusenkyo curse…"

"I'm sorry Ranma but Genma hasn't been out of Japan in the last decade, let alone China." Tofu said, remembering the legend of the cursed springs from a book he had been reading on the subject of ancient legends a few days ago. :And are you saying that Jusenkyo exists?"

Ranma started getting confused. "So… Pops hasn't been to jusenkyo, I was supposedly killed six years ago and no one knows who I am?" He asked, gazing around the room.

Nodoka nodded.

"Well, to answer your question…" Ranma said, picking up a glass of water and dumping it over his head. ".. damn, I was hoping I'd be cured…" The redheaded girl said, scrubbing her hair dry with her hand.

Nodoka took that moment to faint.

Notes.

(1) It's Ryoga… it HAS to have something to do with pigs.

Final. This is my LAST attempt this year at Fan fiction. I will either continue this until it is finished or forget about fan fiction until next summer, when I'll have time to write it.Chapter 2, Explanations and a challenge.

Ranma sighed as she looked over at the slumped body of her mother, Her head sprawled over the arm of the office chair she sat in. "Do ya got some hot water and smelling salts, doc?"

Dr. Tofu nodded, walking out of his office and into the main area of his clinic.

"R-Ranma?" Genma stuttered, a look of shock on his face.

"Yeh. I picked up this curse about a year ago when you decided to go to china without knowing how to speak Chinese."

Genma nodded. "That sounds like something I would have done." Looking the form of the person who claimed to be his son over, he asked, "Can you still fight like that?"

Ranma shrugged. "Yeh. My strength goes down a bunch but I get faster to compensate… My chi reserves drop a bit too, but the ol' ghoul says that's because I'm not as confident as a girl."

After the rather awkward talk between father and…er… daughter, Tofu came back into the room, carrying a kettle of hot water and a packet of smelling salts. Handing one to Ranma, he held the other under Nodoka's nose.

Unfortunately, Ranma hesitated for a second before pouring the hot water over her head and her mother awoke in the middle of the change. Tofu caught her before she could faint again, and she sputtered out "How?"

Ranma just shook his head. "Same way I probably got here I'm guessin. Magic."

Tofu cleared his throat when no one seemed to want to speak after this exchange. "Well, Ranma. It seems you are in good enough health, although how you could recover that quickly still confuses me slightly. Since you don't seem to have a home, why not move into the Saotomes' house… if they'll have you."

Nodoka immediately nodded and Genma did so as well, all be it reluctantly. This person LOOKED like his son, however he had seen him die during the Neko-ken training and was reluctant to believe that he was still alive, no matter where he came from.

A few minutes later, the three left the clinic and proceeded to the Saotome home. Deciding that it was too late at night to do anything else, they all turned in to sleep for the night, Ranma taking the guest bedroom.

/The Next Day/

Ranma was awoken from his futon by his father's battle cry. "Wake up boy!" Going on instincts honed by long years on the road with the older man, he rolled out of the way of a kick meant to send him out the window and jumped to his feet.

"Hey pop! Why're ya wakin me up so early this mornin? It's a Sunday!" Completely forgetting the events of the night before, Ranma darted in to punch his father in the stomach.

The older man brought up his arm to defend, however he did it much slower than usual and Ranma landed the hit, sending him back into the far wall of the bedroom.

"Jeas pop, are you alright?" Ranma asked, kneeling over the older man. As he was catching his breath from the surprisingly hard punch from his son, 'Guess He's learned something in an extra six years,' Genma launched his legs into Ranma's stomach, propelling him out the window and into the Koi pond out back.

A few seconds later, he heard a splash and a feminine shout of "Why is it ALWAYS Water!"

Blinking in confusion, Genma walked over to the window and saw a redheaded girl pulling herself out of the water and giving him the evil eye. 'Oh right! That curse…' Even with this thought, Genma had just proven that the strange boy his wife found was, if not his son, at least a VERY competent student of anything goes.

As Ranma marched into the kitchen of the house, she cursed as she saw that there wasn't a kettle on the burner of the stove. 'But Kasumi always puts one out…' She thought, before realizing that she wasn't at the Tendo Dojo and remembering what had happened the previous day. (1)

Ranma put a kettle on the stove and opened the refrigerator, rummaging around inside for food. As she pulled her head out, she saw a groggy Nodoka walking into the kitchen. "Hey mom." She said, offhandedly.

Nodoka blinked a few times before remembering who the strange girl going through her refrigerator was. "Um…. Hello Ranma." She said, hesitantly. "Why are you a girl?"

Ranma shrugged. "Guess pops wanted to see if I was tellin the truth or somethin. He woke me up for a mornin sparring session and sent me through the window."

Just then, Genma walked in from up stairs, nursing a bruze on his stomach. "And you have one hell of a left, boy." He grumbled, sitting at the table.

Ranma shrugged. "Funny, I thought you were goin easy or somethin… you're never that slow."

"I haven't really practiced since the accident…" Genma admitted, in a somewhat shaky voice.

Ranma blinked. "Six years ago you said, Ain't that about the time of the Neko-Ken?" She shivered at the memory as she pulled a rather large cold plate from the fridge.

Genma went pale. "H… how do you know of that technique?" He asked, his voice trembling.

"'cuz ya trained me in it." Ranma said, the elder two almost missing the muttered "Stupid ol' man," which followed.

Nodoka looked curiously at Ranma. "What is this Neko-Ken?"

Ranma shrugged. "If pops hasn't told ya yet, I ain't gunna. I don't like pops much sometimes but I don't want him to die."

Nodoka blinked, before filing that away to ask her husband later, in private.

A few seconds later, Ranma hooked the kettle off of the stove and dumped it over her head. "I still find that… interesting…" Nodoka commented, looking over the now male form of her son.

"Annoying is more like it," Ranma muttered, "Everywhere I go I end up getting splashed somehow, but I guess I'm kinda lucky. Pops turned into a Panda and Ryoga into a… never mind… And poor shampoo turned into a C-C-C… thing." (2)

"So, are you going to school Ranma?" Nodoka asked, looking at her son as if to say, "You'd better!"

"Um… yeh, I guess… but isn't it Sunday?" Ranma asked, confused.

"No… it's Tuesday." Genma muttered, as he tore into a breakfast made by Nodoka.

"Aw crap." Ranma said, looking up at the clock. "I was positive it was Sunday. I don't have my stuff here though."

Nodoka smiled, pulling a black school bag out of nowhere. "Here you go."

Ranma blinked. "uh… Mom? Where'd you get that?"

Nodoka just shrugged. "I was planning on getting you back in school as soon as Genma got you home from the training trip… I guess I just forgot to get rid of the supplies."

Shrugging, Ranma put the pack on his back, grabbed a bento that seemed to also materialize from nowhere and hopped up to a nearby roof to start his run to school.

Nodoka just sat there gaping for a second, while Genma just shrugged.

As Ranma approached Furinkan High School, he saw a crowd of people around the front gates. 'I wonder what's goin on?" he thought, hopping down to street level.

As he got closer, he began to hear the murmurs of the crowd. "Oh, Akane's late today! I wonder what's going on? I'll beat her for sure today!"

"Oh no… not them." Ranma muttered, walking up to Nabiki, who was hiding in the back of the crowd, and asking what was going on, just to make sure.

Nabiki looked up at Ranma and looked him over, seeming to size him up for money making opportunities. "Oh, It's my sister's admirers… They come out here every morning. Would you like to place a bet on how long it'll take them to beat her? Nabiki's ice queen expression was perfect, giving no evidence to the seemingly new mark that her sister was going to make minced meat out of the crowd of boys in front of the school.

Reaching into the pocket of the tattered blue pants he was still wearing, Ranma found his wallet and fingered through it. He didn't have much money, and Nabiki owed him for all of those pictures she had taken. "I'll bet 3,000 yen that she'll flatten them." Ranma said, pulling out all of the money he had.

Nabiki blinked in surprise, accepting the money anyways, as if she refused, any other new marks would withdraw they're cash. Anyways, It didn't really matter. One loss didn't really do anything to her profits.

As Ranma left Nabiki to count her money, he hopped up onto the school wall, waiting to see Akane's entrance. He was wondering why the attacks hadn't stopped yet, as they had seemed to just fade away shortly after he had shown up. Shrugging, he spotted Akane, Running at full speed towards the horde of boys at the front gate, and automatically chucking her school bag to the closest person, who happened to be Ranma.

After Akane had ploughed through the horde of boys, Ranma noticed Tatewaki Kuno hiding behind a tree. As he was going to go down and pound the man, who he was still VERY angry at for pulling a sword at the wedding, he reminded himself that this wasn't the same guy.

After Akane had pounded Kuno, who Ranma could tell was, as always, holding back, she approached him on the wall and smiled. "Hello. I'm Akane. I'm sorry about throwing my bag at you like that, but I needed my hands free, you know?"

Ranma grinned back. "Sure. No problem. Here's your bag." Tossing it to Akane, he walked towards the school, deciding not to say anything else to her in case he accidentally insulted her again… not that he cared what SHE thought, of course. The mallet would just hurt, is all.

After going to the office and being temporarily assigned to Second year, class 2-E until he could take the Exam to get into Furinkan, Ranma got a bit of a shock. That was, he was in Nabiki and Kuno's class. Even Ranma realized that there was something wrong at this point, as Nabiki and Kuno were third year students… at least they were before he got ploughed over by Ryoga's attack.

"Hello Class," The teacher, a tall man with wire frame glasses, said. "This is a new student, Ranma Saotome. Why don't you tell us about yourself Mr. Saotome?"

Ranma walked up to the front of the class and scratched the back of his neck. "Hi. I'm Ranma. I'm a martial artist in the Saotome School of Anything goes."

The teacher nodded and said, "Alright Mr. Saotome. Why don't you sit back there, next to Ms. Tendo." Ranma flinched slightly but nodded, walking to the seat on the other side of Nabiki from Kuno and settling down.  
After sleeping through English, history and Math, It was time for Ranma's favourite period. Getting up out of his desk, he headed for the school yard to enjoy his lunch… only to be stopped by Nabiki.

"Um.. Hi Tendo San." Ranma said, trying to act, badly, like he didn't know Nabiki.

"Hello Ranma baby." Nabiki said, in a voice reminiscent of the one she talked to Kuno in. "I have your winnings from this morning's bets here." Pulling out Ranma's three thousand yen, as well as another six, she handed it to him. "Now, do you mind telling me how you knew my sister would win that fight?"

Ranma searched his mind franticly for an excuse. He could see what Nabiki would do with the truth. He had found out, in the times when he was not asleep in class, that whatever Ryoga had done had done more than sending him to another dimension. He had also gone back a year in time, since last time he had checked it was 1993 and the calendar on the wall said 1992. Visions of Nabiki using him to predict sporting events flashed through Ranma's mind.

"I.. Um… heard of your Dojo and it's reputation." Ranma said, thinking quickly and trying to lie. "I heard that Akane Tendo was a good fighter and recognised your name."

"Really?" Came a voice from behind Ranma."

He spun, to see Akane grinning broadly at him. "How bout we spar sometime then? I heard from one of my friends in Nabiki's class that you're from Uncle Saotome's Martial arts school… He's really good."

Ranma shrugged, trying to figure out how he let Akane sneak up on him. Anyone who was a reasonably proficient martial artist could surprise him when he wasn't paying attention, however Akane usually showed up sounding like a herd of elephants to his trained senses. "I guess I could do that." He said, looking at Nabiki. "Ya don't wanna place a bet on that too, do ya?"

Nabiki smirked. "I don't think so. I learned my lesson about accepting bets from you the first time."

Ranma walked away from the two sisters, mentally thanking Kami that he had somehow bluffed his way through a bet with Nabiki and that she probably wouldn't bother him again. Boy, was he wrong. Thinking about Akane's request to spar, he decided that he wasn't going to make the mistake he had made the first time. He was going to actually fight her, even if he did hold back.

Nabiki and Akane looked after the new boy, speculatively.

"He's kinda cute." Nabiki said, looking him up and down.

Akane shrugged. "He's a boy… So long as he doesn't try anything perverted, he's alright."

Nabiki sighed at her younger sister's strange opinions on all things male and mentally wondered why she had invited him to spar with her if she thought he was a pervert.

Later in the lunch hour, Nabiki noticed a short red haired girl stomping into the school and squeezing out the bottom of a now drenched, as well as slightly torn, red shirt. Thinking that she'd seen those garments before, if on a slightly different person, she quickly followed the girl into the building. Pulling her camera out, just in case, she tracked the girl to the boys washroom and then watched her go inside. "Interesting." She muttered, walking up to the door to wait the girl out.

Ranma sighed as she made sure the bathroom was empty before stripping off her shirt and ringing it out. 'Why did the sprinklers under that tree HAVE to go off." She thought, running the water until it became hot. Splashing herself, he put his now slightly dryer, although still damp, red shirt on and opened the bathroom door, to find himself staring right at Nabiki.

"Uh, Hi Tendo San." Ranma stammered, looking slightly nervous.

TO Ranma's surprise, Nabiki pushed him aside and walked into the bathroom, looking around curiously. "Where'd she go." She muttered, looking around for the redhead who she had seen enter the room.

Ranma tried to back away while Nabiki was looking around the bathroom, but was quickly stopped by said girl turning around and saying, "Oh Ranma baby. If you go anywhere I'll report that you've been seeing a girl in the bathroom." He stopped cold and started stammering.

"But I haven't.. The only person in there was me, I swear."

"Then are you a cross dresser?" Nabiki asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I ain't a cross dresser!" Ranma yelled, attracting the attention of several people in the hall.

"Well then Ranma, you're going to have to tell me what happened… now aren't you?" Nabiki asked, her curiosity peaked. She wasn't normally this persistent when chasing down rumour material, however THIS rumour seemed really good.

Ranma sighed. "Fine. Meet me at your place after school and I'll tell ya. Right after my spar with Akane… deal?"

Nabiki grinned, shark like. "Don't be late." She said, walking off.

Ranma sighed, thinking, 'Yep, things are shapin up to be the same here as they were at home…'

Notes.

(1) He was half asleep and suffering from morning amnesia… cut me some slack, okay?

(2) Don't you think Ranma'd think that would be a fate worse than death?

The emotional family reunion stuff is stuff I just can't write well… It'll either happen later, in a rewrite or I'll get a better drama writer than I to do it.

OOC Notice!

Genma and Nodoka WILL be OOC. For Genma, it's having one of his training methods blow up in his face. In addition, some of Nodoka's expectations of Ranma will be MUCH less strict, since she's just grateful to have him back at all. That is all.Chapter 3, Engagement? And Jusenkyo's death.

Nabiki Tendo held her camera in her hand, standing in the doorway to the Dojo and taking pictures of her younger sister, who was running through a rapid series of Katas in the middle of the room.

"Jeas Akane," she said, "No wonder boys think you're weird."

Her younger sister turned to her, glairing at her Camera as she responded. "There are more important things in the world than BOYS Nabiki." She said the word as if it dripped with venom.

Nabiki smirked. "Oh yeh, what about 'Ryo-Chan.'"

Akane stuttered and blushed for a few seconds, before choking out, "...I don't like Ryo-Chan Like that! Besides. He's different."

Nabiki just smirked knowingly before walking out of the dojo, throwing a parting word over her shoulder. "Ranma is going to be here for that spar you asked for soon. He had to stay after school to fill out some paper work."

Akane just nodded and went back to her Katas.

Nabiki's younger sister had always been a mystery to her. Ever since she was about 12, Akane had been calling anything male a pervert. From the way she acted, it was almost like something had happened to her to enforce that opinion, but Nabiki quickly dismissed that as an impossibility. After all, Akane was the best martial artist in the district, especially with Mr. Saotome training her. The confusing part about her sister was the fact that she, despite her rather strange beleafs in male perversity, still challenged any male martial artist she could find in order to learn his style. And then there was that strange Ryoga boy... but Nabiki just dismissed him as an oddity, as Akane seemed to have taken some sort of liking to him in spite of his gender.

As she walked past the front room of the house, Nabiki saw her father sitting across the Shogi board from Mr. Saotome, the two of them talking excitedly. This struck her as odd, as her father very rarely came out of his depression over her mother's death unless he was drunk and Mr. Saotome was almost as bad about his son and heir's death. 'Now what was that boy's name?' Secretly, Nabiki thought that Genma was just upset because his son wouldn't provide him with an easy retirement anymore, but he was training her sister so she left it alone.

Curling up on the living room couch with a ledger and a calculator to calculate her prophets from the day at school, Nabiki's thoughts drifted towards the boy who she had blackmailed into giving her information at the end of the day. She didn't particularly care if some boy and some girl were sneaking off into the bathroom together, however she could use it as material to hold over the boy's head, especially after he had won the bet that morning. What really interested her was how the girl had gotten out of the bathroom without her seeing her. Nabiki wasn't above spies to get her information, and one with the abilities that the girl must have in order to get past her would be useful.

As she contemplated the uses for a person that good at stealth tactics, Nabiki couldn't help but listen to her father and Mr. Saotome's conversation.

"Look Tendo. He has come back!" Mr Saotome said, adamantly.

"Saotome... Perhaps the grief of your loss has finally gotten to you old friend. Ranma is dead."

Nabiki perked up. 'Ranma?'

"Listen Tendo. Nodoka found him beat up in a back alley yesterday. Even if he isn't my son, he knows the Saotome School. I haven't assessed his skills fully in a sparring match yet but I saw him manifest Chi. He's good and he THINKS he's Ranma, so what else matters. Our retirement is secured!"

Soun shook his head slowly. "Saotome..."

Genma leaned towards Soun and looked into his face. "Look, Tendo. Ranma marries one of your daughters, inherits the Dojo and the two of us just sit back and relax. What could go wrong! Not to mention, the schools will finally be joined without me having to train your daughter in the more... dangerous... portions of the Saotome School."

"Dangerous?" Soun asked, gulping.

"Oh yes." Genma said, adopting a sage expression. "The Yama-Senken training is very hard and dangerous, not to mention the Neko-Ken..."

Soun went Demon head. "You will NOT train my daughter in that horrible technique!"

"And that's why we need to do this. Ranma told me this morning that he knows the Neko-Ken, and I can train him in the Yumi and Yama-Senken techniques later on. The schools will be secured and your beautiful daughters won't be harmed."

Soun reluctantly nodded, and Nabiki glared at the two of them from the couch. If what she was hearing was correct, That boy who was coming to spar with Akane and talk to her was Mr. Saotome's dead son brought back to life. If she had lived anywhere other than Nerima, Nabiki would never have believed it. What was worse, the two idiots were apparently planning to marry her or one of her sisters to the guy. True, he didn't seem all that bad, however Nabiki didn't want to get married just yet, Akane seemed to like Ryoga and Kasumi... well, no one really knew who Kasumi liked but her and Akane were gambling on Dr. Tofu.

Nabiki was jolted out of her deep thoughts by a knock at the door, which Kasumi answered. "Oh hello. Are you one of Akane's friends?"

After some muffled conversation from the person at the door, Kasumi led them into the living room, revealing a dripping wet red haired girl, still wearing an exact duplicate of Ranma's torn Chinese clothes.

Mr. Saotome looked up from the Shogi board, which both Soun and he were concentrating on fiercely now that their discussion was completed, and asked, "Boy? Why are you a girl?"

Nabiki, if she wasn't sitting on a couch, would have face faulted at such a stupid, and strange, question but the redhead just took it in stride.

"It was rainin." She muttered, pointing out the open porch doors to the downpour that was in progress.

"Saotome, Who's this?" Soun asked, looking curiously at the girl.

"Tendo, this is Ranma. He's got a bit of a... problem..." Genma said, looking sheepish.

"Wahhh! My old friend has gone crazy and thinks some poor girl is his son!" Soun wailed, twin tracks of tears rolling down his face.

Kasumi quickly walked into the kitchen uttering one of her trademarked "Oh My"s and getting out of the way of any potential strange events.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, then spoke from the couch. "Daddy, I met Ranma this afternoon... he was definitely a boy. Mr. Saotome, stop playing around. Now, I've got to talk to this young lady alone." Saying this, Nabiki grabbed the arm of the startled, yet unresisting, redhead and pulled her up the stairs into her room.

Closing the door to her room, Nabiki sat down on her bed and looked the girl in front of her over. She was short, about 4.8 and had bright red hair tied in a pigtail. Her bust size was... impressive and she had a very nice figure, as Nabiki had developed an appraising eye for womens' figures ever since her 'Who will Kuno go after next' bets started and she had to be able to set the odds. This girl was one who Kuno would definitely go after.

Getting down to business, Nabiki crossed her arms under her chest and spoke. "Well, you came to see me instead of Ranma, eh?"

The girl just shrugged and opened her mouth to speak, before Nabiki cut her off. "Look. I know what Ranma's father has planned. I don't want to get engaged this early, Akane already has someone 'even if she won't admit it...' and I think Kasumi does as well. We don't have any interest in your boyfriend."

The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and then she appeared to look sick for a moment before opening her mouth again. "Um... Nabiki, I don't think you understand..."

Nabiki continued as if she didn't hear the other girl, as she knew that she had to get her proposal out first so that she would have an advantage in negotiations. "Now, as for you and Ranma meeting in the boys bathroom... I can keep that quiet for a few little... favours."

Nabiki blinked as the girl sweat dropped and turned red. "Um... Nabiki." She said, looking embarrassed. "There's something about me you really should know."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"I really am Ranma. I have this curse ya see..."

Five minutes later, Nabiki was actually grinning. The girl's story was very funny, however someone who could come up with a lie THAT outlandish and manage to tell it with a straight face would be an asset to her.

"You don't believe me, do ya?" The girl asked, still looking perfectly honest.

Nabiki shook her head. "Nope. You know, if you're going to tell a lie at least make it believable." Nabiki was surprised as the girl got up off of her bedroom floor, where she had slumped shortly after starting the story of Jusenkyo, and walked out.

"Hey, where are you going?" Nabiki asked, as she chased after the smaller girl.

Ranma didn't stop to answer Nabiki as she walked to the bathroom, opened the door and started running hot water into the sink.

'What is she doing?' Nabiki wondered, before remembering the part of Ranma's story in which she told about the triggers of the curse. 'Was she serious?'

Nabiki's question was quickly answered as the girl in front of her splashed herself with a handful of water and turned into a boy.

"Hey Nabiki?" Ranma asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face as Nabiki stood, stunned, three minutes later. "You okay?"

Nabiki quickly shook her head and blinked rapidly at the boy in front of her. True, his transformation was strange but she had seen stranger ones before. That time Kuno had accidentally put on enchanted armour made for a female warrior, for example... (2)

"Um, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, hesitantly.

"Yes Ranma?" Nabiki asked, still in a little bit of shock.

"Is there any way I can keep you from spreading this around school?" Ranma asked, hopefully.

Nabiki thought for a minute, scratching the back of her right hand with her left in a rather peculiar mannerism that Ranma had never noticed her use before. Of course, Ranma was usually too nervous that Nabiki would ask him to pay back the massive debt that he had managed to build up before. After a few seconds, Nabiki said, "Well, All you have to do is do me a few favours, like I said earlier. Just be on call to help me for... about a month. Deal?"

Ranma shrugged. "You help me keep the curse under raps, or if it gets out you help me spread the TRUE version of events and I don't do anything dishonourable as a favour to you. Sound good?" Ranma had negotiated with Nabiki before, and the last time he had agreed to do "Favours" for her, he had ended up using the Umi-Senken to sneak into the principles office to copy school records.

Nabiki smiled. "Deal." And shook Ranma's hand, before they're fathers suddenly burst up the stairs that they were now standing in front of.

"See Tendo, I told you he was really a boy!" Genma said, pointing at Ranma. "We can join the schools, and he's already friends with Nabiki there."

Soun looked Ranma over, before extending a finger and poking his chest. "Wow, that's the first time anyone's ever done that to me in normal form." Ranma muttered, looking at Soun strangely.

Soun smiled and a small river of tears leaked out of each eye, trickling down his cheeks. "Yes... the schools can be joined. He does seem rather partial to Nabiki, doesn't he?"

Nabiki saw where this was going, and began to back up.

Since he had gone through this before, Ranma also saw where this was going and began to back up as well, bumping into Nabiki and stopping them both in they're tracks.

"It's settled then! Ranma, you shall marry Nabiki as a matter of family honour to unite the schools!" Genma said, proudly raising his hand into the air in a sign of victory.

Nabiki wondered why she heard Ranma mutter, "not again," before his inevitable vocal objection. Of course, his vocal objection was really strange.

"Pop, you tried the Tendo agreement before." Ranma said, coolly.

Genma blinked. "What, boy?"

"Where I originally came from. You engaged me N' Akane. We fought you for a year on it, and were still not married when I got sent here."

Nabiki was very confused now, but remembered Mr. Saotome's comment about finding Ranma in an alley and revised her opinion of "Ranma the ghost" to "Ranma from somewhere else."

"Well," Genma said happily, "This isn't Akane, is it. This is Nabiki. I'm sure she'll be good and marry you..."

Ranma and Nabiki both glared at the older man and Soun interjected. "Come on Saotome. Let's not push them right away... let them get to know each other first and all that."

As the two men passed by, headed back down stairs, Ranma could already hear them cooking up one of they're marriage plans.

"It's gunna be one of those days..." Nabiki muttered, holding her head with her hand. Ranma just nodded sympathetically.

(Joketsu Zoku, China, Bayankala mountain range.)

The old woman stared out over the edge of a cliff, looking down at the valley below it. The sacred valley of the springs, or as the ignorant outsiders, and the guide, called it, the cursed springs. Fortunately, the ignorant outsiders hadn't come around for a long time and the family of guides hadn't been seen for about 200 years... ever since the springs dried up.

The woman's white hair waved rapidly in the breeze as she jumped up from her sitting position, on to the top of a staff, and pogoed down the Cliffside into the valley. Responding to a pull that she had been feeling since the day before, she walked towards one spring, stepping into the dried and cracked crater that used to be filled with water. Picking up a rotting board from next to the spring, she read, "Nyanniichuan. (Spring of drowned girl)"

She sat down in the middle of the spring, going by the urging of her instincts, throwing the three hundred years of wisdom she had accumulated in her life to the side as she fell into a meditative trance and the magic that still clung weakly to the dead ground of what used to be a beautiful yet cursed valley assisted her well honed Chi senses, allowing her to detect a large power in Japan... one with signs of Amazon Martial skill manipulation in it's aura... this one knew the soul of ice.

'Someone knows the forbidden technique? Could it be the Prophecy?' Cologne thought, before getting up, jumping on to her staff and pogoing back to the village of Amazon Women. (1)

Notes.

(1) There are reasons for Jusenkyo being dried up and the soul of ice being forbidden. I'm not telling them, they'll eventually show up.  
(2) Feh, who said Ranma brought the insanity to Nerima?

When I can write it well enough, I will publish the prophecy as a separate chapter. Of Course, who knows when that will be and until then you'll hear it mentioned without it being explained... MWAHAHAHAHA!

Sorry this took so long, I don't write well while in school. Well, R&R or I'll sick Mousse with a Yasunituan water gun on you!

Final note! Yes, I know Genma wouldn't teach Akane the Umi-Yama-senken techs or the Neko-Ken, however it is a good incentive to soun, Ne?

Prophecy.

Translated from the original Chinese Amazon Dialect by pu-Rina of the Musk free press.

In an era of warring states, countries clashing and broken armour plates, there shall be a battle fought, of proportions epic and importance not.

The Dragon king of an animal tribe, shall trod upon a phoenix pride, Their peoples' warriors constantly ride, till the kingdoms' dead and the springs dried.

The final battle between the two, destroys the river flowing true, Kensezan defaced, the valley laid waist and the dragon laid to rest.

After the death of the Dragon king, the phoenix shall spread his fiery wings, Laying the land around him low, Till forth a new warrior shall go.

One with Soul of ice and aura of fire, proud yet caring and full of desire, opposite forms and one soul, the last of the springs' blessed fold.

This one shall fight the phoenix king, bring back the valley of the springs, bringing peace to the Amazon tribe, allowing it's warriors to once again walk with pride.

Chapter 4, discontent in the empire.

Kiemma of the Phoenix people walked through the tunnels deep in phoenix mountain, carrying her spear at her side and patrolling the area for any intruders. Grumbling about the indignity of the captain of the phoenix god's personal guard being put on patrol detail, she missed the shadowy figure who was hanging back in one of the side corridors.

As the disgruntled guard captain walked past, a small, old figure melted out of the shadowy darkness of the wall, carrying a large brown bag filled with food supplies and various types of treasure. After grinning lecherously and appreciatively at the receding figure of the lead guardswoman, he hopped down the hall in the other direction to get out of the stronghold of Lord Saffron. Hopping down the mountain side, The figure spotted it's target, a tall, regal looking man who wore rusted and tattered dragon scale armour and who's long, white and greenish hair was tied back in a ponytail to avoid getting in his way during a fight.

"Hello, Herb Chan!" The old figure said, bounding up to the younger man.

"Will you stop calling me that?" The younger one growled, kicking a leg out to catch the old man in the stomach, only to have it jumped over.

"Aw, I'm sorry Herb-Chan. It's just that if the valley still existed, your aura would almost certainly draw you to my favourite spring!" The old man cackled, causing the younger one to grit his teeth. The old man, known as Happosai, had been saying strange things like that ever since Herb had met him six years ago, and it still got on his nerves.

"Sometimes, I wish we'd never let you out of that stupid cave your students locked you in." Herb muttered, as he took the sack of supplies from the old man and began the long walk to the Joketsu zoku village. True, the Village needed as many allies as it could possibly get, and that was why Herb himself was part of they're warrior force even though he was a male, however the old freak stretched even the oldest of elders' patience.

Herb looked back on his life so far. He had been trained in some of the best of the Chinese Amazons' techniques since his birth, and seemed to have an excessively large store of chi, however even he couldn't take on the mighty god of the phoenix mountain… after all, it had been his great grandfather that the monster had killed so long ago and he had had much more draconian blood than Herb himself.

As he and Happosai walked into the Village, Herb noticed a commotion near the elders' meeting hut. Deciding to check it out, he dropped the bag of supplies for some lower level warriors to pick up later and walked towards the hut, entering with permission of the guard that stood at the door.

"…And I'm telling you that it's the fulfilment of the prophecy!" Elder cologne yelled, getting up on the top of her staff.

"How do you know this?" Elder sa-ge, a former musk royal advisor asked, Raising his eyebrows.

"I felt it." Cologne said adamantly, banging her staff on the floor of the chamber. "There is someone in Japan who can weald the soul of ice. That person also seems to have a Jusenkyo curse, as the springs them selves showed the aura to me. This is the warrior of opposites that the scrolls speak of, I'm sure of it."

Elder Bi-Dea, one of the eldest and a leader of the council, looked to Herb, who had just entered the room. "Herb, how goes the defence against phoenix raiders. Can we spare some warriors to investigate this claim?"

Herb shrugged. "Well, the last phoenix attack was a few weeks ago, and they just seem to be destroying any advancements we try to make. As far as I can tell, we should be fine as long as we do not let Saffron know of our plans."

Bi-Dei nodded, looking at Cologne. "You may go looking for this warrior… If it is the one then it is very important that we find them. Take two warriors with you and do NOT inform the phoenix of your leaving. You are one of our best boarder guards."

Cologne nodded solemnly, Hopping to the top of her staff and pogoing out of the chamber.

Bi-Dea continued. "Herb, do you wish to go?"

Herb blinked. He did want to go with the elder if she was, indeed, trying to find the chosen one, however he never thought that the council would let him leave the village during a time of war. Nodding his head vigorously, He said "Yes honoured elder." In a tone that verged on being disrespectful before running out of the chamber after Cologne.

"Should we have done that?" Elder So-Pu, an elder on the same level as Bi-Dea, asked.

Bi-Dea shrugged. "Well, if the young male is correct then we shouldn't have to worry about the phoenix for a little while and he may help Cologne convince this warrior to come back to help the tribe. let's just hope that we are not just grasping at straws in our desperation."

The other elders nodded before the meeting of the Joketsu Zoku council was closed for the day.

Xian Pu, the greatest female warrior of the Joketsu Zoku, hammered her fists into a wooden board as quickly as possible, causing a rapid machinegun like "Rattattatta" sound to echo around the clearing she was in. At the moment, she was taking out her frustrations that related to a certain elderly pervert who ran through the village and groped every female in sight.

'Why do we need that stupid old man?' She thought, renewing her strikes against the board with savage intensity. Of course, she knew why the tribe needed that stupid old man, and all of the other men that fought for it. Their old "Men are weak" rules had been tossed out more than a hundred years ago, along with the marriage laws… all because of the phoenix tribe's constant quest to wipe them off of the map. Of course, the only really useful male warriors in the entire tribe were Herb and Happosai, and she would much rather not think of the latter. Herb however, was another story.

Shampoo's angry punches began to slow down and lose their fury as she thought of the tall man, who was apparently the heir to the now destroyed musk kingdom. Of course, those two idiots who called them selves his guards, Lime and Mint, on the other hand needed a good kick in the (Expletive deleted.) The bunch of perverts.

As shampoo wheeled around to plant a hard crescent kick into the punching board, she heard a rustling noise from the bushes nearby and changed the kick's trajectory to slam into whatever was in them.

When she heard a loud Thwack! noise and felt a stinging sensation in her lower leg, she looked at her target to see an annoyed old woman holding her leg off with a staff.

"Xian Pu, will you please pull back?" Cologne said, semi-sweetly as she glared at her great granddaughter.

Shampoo giggled nervously as she lowered her leg to the ground, wincing as it touched and sent a shooting pain up and down it's length. "I'm sorry great grandmother. I was lost in thought." She said, meekly.

"I could see that." Cologne muttered, giving shampoo a strange look. "Well, I came here to ask you if you would like to go on a journey with me, child."

"A Journey?" Shampoo asked, looking confused at her elder's words.

"Yes. I am going to Japan to find a warrior that may help us in our fight against the Phoenix tribe. I was allowed to take two warriors and was wondering if you would like to be one of them."

Shampoo grinned happily. 'shampoo go Japan? Shampoo been practicing Japanese. Speak too too good, yes?'

Cologne grinned at her great granddaughter's rather clumsy grasp of Japanese. 'you could do better.' She said, before a second rustling sound in the bushes drew the attention of Shampoo and her great grandmother.

'Well,' Said a third voice, this one male, 'I speak perfect Japanese.'

Cologne blinked. "Herb, are you coming with us?"

Herb came out of the bushes, brushing leaves off of his old and warn armour. "Well, the council said I could and I would be glad to help in the finding of a new warrior for the tribe."

Cologne cackled before hopping up onto her old walking stick. "Well then, you two had better get packed."

(Tendo Dojo, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan.)

Ranma stood in the Dojo across from Akane, who was stretching out in a warm up Kata. After the fathers had announced the engagement a while ago, Nabiki had just thrown up her hands in disgust and said something about talking to him later,, so Ranma decided to get his spar in with Akane before he left for home. Nabiki's comments about Akane "Having Someone" caused Ranma to be a little nervous, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Are you ready?" Akane spoke up, breaking Ranma from his thoughts.

Ranma shook his head to clear his mind and then nodded, putting his hands behind his back in the Saotome school's classic null stance.

Akane recognised this stance, as Genma had used it plenty of times to throw her off guard. Approaching the boy cautiously, she threw a few experimental punches, all of which were dodged. The boy came back with a punch to the stomach that Akane felt should have hurt more than it did.

Akane growled as the boy flipped over her head, landing a kick at the small of her back that sent her forward. Quickly rebalancing, she came around in a spinning kick and… missed completely, causing the boy to come in and shove her to the ground.

"Do you yield?" The boy asked, crushing Akane's right hand under his arm, however not using enough force to really hurt.

Akane's eye began to twitch as she saw where the boy's other hand was.

Realizing that something was wrong, Ranma looked around rapidly before realising that there was a.. soft… sensation coming from his left hand. Looking down, his face went white as he realized where his hand was just before Akane decked him and yelled "Pervert!"

Ranma groaned as he came to consciousness, feeling an Akane trademark headache coming on. "Uncute Tomboy." He muttered, before looking around to see Nabiki and Kasumi staring at him.

"So Saotome, what did you do?" Nabiki asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Ranma sighed. "I forgot she was a girl, that's what." He muttered, rubbing at the bump on his head.

Kasumi blinked. "What?"

"I used a submission hold that holds your arms to your body and applies steady pressure to your upper body by pressing down on the chest… in a spot that girls tend ta flatten you for tuchin."

"You mean you groped her Saotome?" Nabiki asked, putting on a look of fake hurt. "I thought I was your fiancée."

Ranma stuttered. "Uh… n-no.. it was an accident I swear. And besides, I didn't think you wanted me as a fiancé and… and…"

Nabiki keeled over laughing and Ranma glared at her, swearing that he'd get her back for that stunt somehow.

Later, as Ranma walked home, dragging a dead drunk Genma behind him, he thought of the events of the day so far. School hadn't really been all that bad, but the second he showed up at the Tendos' things had gone straight down the tubes. He just HAD to accidentally cop a feel on Akane. If she didn't think he was a pervert before, she sure would now. For some reason, that made him feel bad… even if he didn't want anything to do with the Uncute Tomboy… and besides, she had someone else. Nabiki said so.

Looking ahead, Ranma saw the front porch of his mother and father's home. Deciding that the Ex-Panda man needed to suffer, he continued to drag his father instead of hoisting him up over the edge of the railing.

"Hey Mom. I'm home!" Ranma yelled, dragging his father into the front hall and putting him down next to the shoe mat. Hearing no response to his call, Ranma kicked off his shoes onto his father's head and walked deeper into the house.

As he walked up the stairs to the second floor, Ranma heard a sniffling sound from his parents' room. Walking up and knocking on the door, he got no answer.

"Hey… mom, you okay?" He asked, tentatively reaching for the door handle.

When no response came, Ranma opened the door to see his mother laying on the bed with a piece of paper in her hands and her Katana laying next to her.

Seeing the paper, Ranma sighed and had one of his more perceptive moments. "Don't worry. You wouldn't have done it."

His mother's head snapped up and she looked at him in shock. "R-Ranma?" She asked, before hiding the paper behind her back.

"Relax mom. I know what that thing is." Ranma said, sitting next to the older woman. Fishing around in his pockets, he came out with his beaten up wallet and reached in. pulling out a scrap of burnt paper, he handed it over to her. "This was all that was left of it after ya burnt it."

Nodoka looked down at the charred piece of paper and then took the whole one out from behind her back and matched up a corner. Smiling, she threw the sepuku contract down onto the floor and fell into Ranma's shoulder, sobbing.

As Nodoka was currently putting out a Tendo waterworks subsidiary, the inevitable happened and the shoulder she was crying against suddenly became a bit smaller and softer. Pulling back, she looked the red haired girl in front of her over and quirked an eyebrow. "Out of curiosity," She asked in a half amused, half surprised voice, "How did I manage to think you were manly?"

Ranma grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. "Well, we were all on this vacation and…"

Half way through Ranma's story, Nodoka yelled "Genma did what!" before Ranma could continue.

After a few hours of Ranma telling his mother about his life, in which Genma still stayed Catatonic, The two decided to go to bed. After all, Ranma had school the next morning.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Okay. Sorry for the long wait for updates. Don't you people miss the days of summer where I'd pump out about 2500 a day? Oh well. Sorry if this chapter is kinda bad but the second half of it was written under writer's block… Cya soon and R&R! 


	2. APCCPRS

All purpose unclutured cat person Ranma Saotome.

Ah, I truely love this fic, and REALLY wanted to continue it, however it's gotten so old that I can't seem to get in the mood for writing it anymore. The amazon village scene is a bit weak, and if you want to go with my original concept you may need some explanation given to you, so again you may wish to contact me first. PS: I LOVE this story, and just may decide to start it up again myself at some random point in the future, so I almost hope no one takes the idea... I guess I just put it here for completeness, really.

All purpose uncultured cat person Ranma Saotome. By Weebee.

Rather simple and overused plot here. Ranma ends up with a half cat body after a second dunk in a Jusenkyo spring. I know it's been done before, but it's always had some strange SM spin to it or ended up with Ranma and Ranko in some sort of cat lemon orgy thing… Well, this one WON'T!

Chapter 1. Genma! This is all your fault!

The two travelers walked down the path, into the large valley full of springs. The younger of the two, who wore his black hair in a short pigtail, took off his pack and dropped it to the ground, taking a quick look around. "This place ain't so impressive pop." The boy said, looking at the older man.

"Training is training boy!" The older man said, rubbing his glasses on his white fighting Gi before placing them on his face. Just as the older man said this, a third, short man wearing a Chinese military uniform ran up to the two.

"Oh sirs. You strange ones, no? This place very dangerous. You see…" The little man was cut off as the older of the two travelers jumped to one of the bamboo polls that was coming from one of the springs.

"Come on boy!" The man said, pointing to his younger companion.

The boy looked at the Chinese man for a second, before jumping to another poll.

"Ready boy?" The old man said, adjusting his position on the poll into a crane stance.

"I'm always ready pop!" The boy said, jumping towards his father with a foot extended.

"Wait Mr. Customers!" The small man said, running to the edge of the field of springs. "You no hear tragic story! It too too dangerous here! STOP!"

The two travelers, who were obviously martial artists of some skill from their acrobatic leaps, ignored the guide and continued fighting on the polls. The elder man scored a hit on his son, causing him to fly off and just barely catch himself from falling into a spring. Growling in slight anger, the boy jumped back at the old man, who had expected him to fall into the water. Swinging out a foot, the boy knocked the older man off of his pole and landed there himself.

"Jeas. Is that all you got pop?" The boy asked, looking down at the spring under the pole, where a large number of bubbles were coming to the surface. Suddenly, a large panda came flying out of the spring and landed on one paw on a pole across from the boy.

"Oh sir. Very tragic story of panda who drown 1,200 years ago. Now, whoever falls in spring take body of panda!" The man at the edge of the field of springs said, holding up a white sign with black Chinese characters on it.

"You never said nothin about that!" The younger martial artist said, pointing at the panda. The panda took advantage of the young martial artist's seemingly unwarranted distraction and belted him across the side of the head, sending him flying across the valley and into another spring.

The small man ran to the edge of the spring that the boy had fallen into and held up another sign. "Oh dear. You fall into spring of drowned girl. Very tragic story of young girl who drowned 1,500 years ago."

Just as the small man finished talking, a red topped head popped out of the water, looking around in confusion. "What the?" The person in the spring asked, revealing that it was a female. "Wh… what happened to me?" She asked, clutching at her throat with her hands. With a mounting sense of horror, the girl opened the front of her white training Gi… and screamed. After she had gotten that out of her system, the red haired girl climbed out of the spring, looking around. Spotting the panda, she ran at it. "Pop! I'm gunna KILL you!"

It's highly attuned self preservation instincts kicking into play, the Panda began to franticly run from the charging redhead, holding up signs all the while that it appeared to have pulled from nowhere.

"Calm down Ranma. It isn't my fault. You should have been more careful. Hey! That hurts!" The Panda had said the last as the girl landed a jump kick into it's stomach, sending it staggering back. The Panda automatically responded with a punch to the girl's chest, sending her flying back and onto a bamboo poll. Trying to balance on the poll, the girl over compensated for a different centre of gravity and toppled back, off of the pole and into the water.

"Oh dear." The small man said, walking up next to the Panda. "That spring of drowned cat. Very tragic story of cat who drown 800 years ago. I wonder what happen to poor Mr. Customer."

The panda held up a sign. "Won't he turn into a cat?"

"Well… I kind of no know. This never happen before. Usually, two curses mix and form new cursed form, but no one fall in two springs so in such short time in all my time as guide here." The guide said, looking embarrassed.

The panda began to sweat. "The forms will mix?" It asked, holding up a shakily scrawled sign.

The guide nodded.

"So he'll be like a girl who looks like a cat?" The panda asked, seemingly asking for confirmation.

The guide nodded, slowly this time, wondering what his customer was getting at.

The black portions of the Panda's fur turned slightly sickly grey and he began to turn away from the springs. The last sign he held said "I've got to go!" Before he started to run as fast as he could.

(I wonder what was wrong with him?) The guide wondered, in his native Chinese. Just as the guide said that, the spring of drowned cat exploded in a fountain of water which the guide just barely managed to avoid.

As the spray of water cleared, the guide saw something that he would have considered cute if it didn't have a look of animalistic fury on it's face. It was the girl with red hair, still wearing her white fighting Gi. Her arms and legs were covered with a layer of red fur, some black splotches here and there. Her hair was almost indistinguishable from the rest of her fur covered form, accept for the fact that it was longer and her short pigtail was still intact. Her face was mostly free of fur, however she had a distinctly feline cast to her facial features and her eyes were slits. She also had a set of pointed ears sticking up from the top of her head and a red and black striped tail sticking out of the back of her Gi. The thing that frightened the guide was the set of bright red energy claws that curled from her hands, and a second set that was poking through her Chinese slippers.

The guide stepped back in fear as the girl stalked out of the shallow water of the spring, her arms down at her sides and her head hanging down. Suddenly, her head shot up and she sniffed the air, sinking to all fours and running in the same direction as the panda had earlier.

"I getting too too old for this." The guide muttered, walking to his hut and slamming the door.

Genma Saotome was worried. No, he was really worried. He had been turned into a panda, with no apparent cure, and his son, who had been turned into some kind of cat girl was chasing after him. He wasn't stupid. He knew that every time his son went into the Neko Ken he tried to attack him and if becoming half cat didn't push the boy over the edge, he didn't know what would. Sure enough, Genma heard the sound of trees crashing to earth behind him. Desperately trying to lose his pursuer, Genma swerved off of the trail and up a small mountain path. Digging around in his pack, which he had grabbed when he started running away, Genma pulled out a small hunk of meat. Giving up the food would be a shame, however it was far better than being clawed to death. Dropping the meat on the ground, Genma pulled out a second hunk and threw it onto a divergent path of the trail. Just before he lost sight of the other path, Genma took out a third piece of meat and huffed it the same way, seeing it land a good way down the path. Genma sighed in mixed relief and regret. That would get his son off of his back for a little while, but at such a high cost.

Behind Genma, Ranma smelled raw meat. Sniffing around a bit, she saw a piece of meat lying on the ground. Eagerly, she pounced on it, beginning to eat rapidly. After she had finished off that piece, Ranma stuck her nose into the air and sniffed. She could smell the scent of her enemy, however she could also smell more of the delicious food. Going by a set of instincts that was hard wired into the Saotome genetic make up, Ranma headed for the food.

Ryoga Hibiki was lost. This, as many readers may know, was not unusual. Smacking a large branch out of his way with his hand, Ryoga emerged onto a mountain trail, a small valley visible over the side of the drop on the other side of the trail. "I've finally gotten back to a path!" Ryoga said, happily. With a spring in his step, Ryoga began to walk down the trail. He stopped when he found a hunk of fresh meat on the trail, seemingly just laying there. "Oh well. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Ryoga said, taking off his pack in preparation to rap the food and put it in with his provisions. As he put the food away, Ryoga heard something that sounded suspiciously like a cat meowing. Looking up from his bag, Ryoga saw a girl in a white training Gi running towards him on all fours, and making the strange cat like sound.

Ranma ran down the trail, having managed to find one more tasty morsel of food and smelling a third in the distance. Catching sight of a two legged thing in the distance, she wondered if it was what was dropping the tasty food. Sure enough, she saw it holding a piece of food in it's hand, seemingly ready to drop it for her. With a happy cry, Ranma jumped at the two legged thing, ready to grab the food from it's hand.

Ryoga looked up in surprise as the girl, who he now realized looked kind of like a cat, jumped at him with another strange meowing noise. Before he could get out of the way, the girl had bowled him over, and the two were headed for the edge of the path and the drop below.

"Oh crap!" Ryoga yelled, as he fell from the path and began rolling down the mountain, the girl rapped around him in a tangle of arms and legs. Just before he hit the bottom of the hill, the redhead bounded off of him, giving him just a bit too much momentum and sending him splashing into one of the springs in the valley below.

As Ryoga pulled himself out of the water, he spat a mouth full onto the ground. As he turned around, he caught sight of a small man in a Chinese military uniform.

"Hello there." The small man said, looking at Ryoga quizzically. "You very lucky. You fall into spring of drowned man. Very tragic story of man who drowned in spring 400 year ago. It good thing you already man, yes?"

Ryoga blinked. "Huh?"

Just as Ryoga said this, the girl who had knocked him over the cliff padded up to him and he saw her more clearly. She not only looked kind of like a cat, for almost all intents and purposes, she was a cat. She even had a tail poking out of the bottom of her white fighting Gi.

"Hello there girl. Who're you?" Ryoga asked, kneeling down in front of the girl.

She just meowed at him questioningly.

"Oh. That poor other customer. He fall into spring of drowned girl, and then spring of drowned cat. Shock make mind snap. Poor Mr. Customer." The guide said, shaking his head sadly.

"This is really a guy?" Ryoga asked, surprised.

"Yes sir. Let me get hot water and show." The guide said, leading Ryoga to his hut. Strangely, the cat girl followed, sniffing questioningly at Ryoga's backpack. She wanted more food.

A few minutes later, Ryoga was sitting in a small hut, the cat girl now pawing at his pack with her right hand. She kept looking between Ryoga and his pack questioningly, with a plaintive Meow every few seconds. Just as the girl was going to try and rip open Ryoga's pack with an energy claw, the guide came into the room with a kettle of water and upended it over her head.

The girl gave an indignant yowl as she grew a few inches. Her breasts shrank into a flat, masculine chest, all of the fur on her body turned a jet black and the pitch of her yowl deepened a few octaves.

Ranma woke to the feeling of something hot being pored over his head and the sound of a cat yowling. Strangely, it came from his own throat. He also felt strange, his senses augmented slightly, the dark room seeming just a bit brighter than it was supposed to be, scents were jumping out at him more strongly than they were supposed to and he could hear slightly more background noise than he was used to. Blinking rapidly, Ranma looked around the small room he was in to see the guide who had brought him and his father to Jusenkyo, as well as a broad shouldered boy with a bandana.

"Oh dear." The guide said, looking at Ranma in surprise. "You not turn back all way."

"Huh? Wadda you mean?" Ranma asked, rapping his tail around his waist. Wait a second. Rewind. His tail? Whipping the appendage around his body, he grabbed it with one hand. "What the hell happened to me?" He asked, grabbing the guide by the collar.

The guide looked scared for a minute, and then calmed down slightly. "You fall into spring of drowned girl. Then you fall into spring of drowned cat. You get mixed curse of girl and cat but cat part stay when you turn back. I no know why. Please don't hurt me!"

"I'm… part ca… cat?" Ranma asked, stuttering the last part. A mind numbing terror struggled up in the back of his head but he mercilessly stomped it down.

"Look on bright side. At least you no act like cat anymore." The guide said, trying to comfort his customer.

"That ain't the curse. It's somethin called the Neko Ken. I'm real scared of cats and when I can't get away from 'em I start actin like one. I guess the shock of the change made me go into it." Ranma said. Catching sight of the third person in the room, he spoke up. "I didn't hurt no one, did I?"

The other boy who was about his age spoke up. "You knocked me into a spring, but it didn't do anything to me."

"Oh." Ranma said, looking at the other boy carefully. "Where have I seen you before…" He said, knowing that the other boy looked familiar from somewhere.

The other boy blinked. "I don't know. I'm Ryoga Hibiki. I'm here looking for Ranma Saotome."

"You're lookin for me? Why?" Ranma asked, looking at Ryoga quizzically.

"You're Ranma?" Ryoga asked, looking at the half man, half cat in front of him. For some reason, the boundless anger that usually flared up when he thought of Ranma didn't come to him as he looked at the other boy.

"Hey wait!" Ranma said, snapping his fingers. "You're Hibiki, from Jr. High. I always used to lead you to school, right?" Then he looked confused. "But where're your fangs?"

Ryoga blinked, and then ran his tongue along his top row of teeth. Sure enough, the two elongated incisors that were a signature of his family were missing. "I… don't know. As stupid as this may sound, They were there this morning. They must have disappeared when I fell into… the… spring." Ryoga trailed off slowly.

Ranma just shrugged it off before asking, "So why did you come looking for me?"

Ryoga got a shadow of his old anger back at this question. "You know why! I came to get my fight!" Ryoga then jumped out of his chair, glaring at Ranma.

"Get your fight?" Ranma asked, staring at the other boy in confusion. "You mean the one you were three days late for in Jr. High?"

"Hey! I showed up on the fourth day!" Ryoga said, before realizing how stupid that sounded. "Even if the place was just a hundred metres from…" He blushed. Never mind that. Let's finish the fight!"

"Please! No in house!" The guide said, waving his hands rapidly.

"Right." Ranma and Ryoga said together, walking out of the door to the house and into a field that was as far away from the springs as they could get.

"You ready Ryoga?" Ranma asked, squaring off a few feet away from the other boy, who had dropped his backpack next to the guide's hut.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Ryoga yelled back, falling into a fighting stance.

"Let's GO!" Ranma yelled, charging at Ryoga. Ryoga charged as well, and the two met with a flurry of punches and blocks. Ranma dodged most of Ryoga's punches, however the ones that hit hurt like hell. Ryoga couldn't dodge and was being pummelled mercilessly, however Ranma just couldn't hit hard enough to really hurt him in one punch. Swinging around with his umbrella, Ryoga almost hit Ranma in the chest as Ranma instinctively brought his hands up… and something really strange happened. A reddish claw burst from between each of Ranma's black fur covered knuckles and shredded Ryoga's umbrella.

"My combat umbrella!" Ryoga yelled, glaring indignantly at Ranma.

"Um… woops?" Ranma said, scratching the back of his head. "How the heck did I do that?" Dismissing it, Ranma and Ryoga went back into their battle, the guide watching on from the sidelines.

About an hour later, Ranma and Ryoga lay on the ground, both panting in exertion. "So… I win then?" Ranma asked, as he looked at Ryoga, who had gotten the worst of the fight.

"It was a draw and you know it!" Ryoga said, with a grin. "I'll train up and come back to clean your clock!"

"Sure you will Ryoga." Ranma said, grinning back. "Sure you will."

After this exchange, the two martial artists began to chuckle, Too tired for any other type of high spirits.

Looking around the area and seeing that his and Ryoga's packs were sitting next to each other, Ranma looked at the bandana clad martial artist and asked, "So you wanna travel with me?"

"What? Where did that come from?" Ryoga asked, looking at Ranma, confused.

"Well pops kinda took off and I need someone to spar with, especially if I'm stuck as a half ccc Cat for the rest of my life. It'll take some getting used to, ya know? Besides. You always get lost and I can help ya find your way like I used to in the old days at school.

"I guess so." Ryoga said, for some reason the reminder of his directional problem was not pissing him off nearly as much as it usually did. Hauling himself to his feet, Ryoga offered Ranma an arm, which he gladly accepted.

"Man you look weird Saotome." Ryoga said, studying Ranma's facial features and the black fur that surrounded his face and covered the rest of his body.

"Thanks a lot Hibiki." Ranma muttered, heading for the guide's hut to pick up his backpack and take out his tent and sleeping bag in order to set up camp.

Later on that night, Ranma and Ryoga sat around a camp fire, sharing a pot of camp cooked rice.

"So where do we go now?" Ranma asked, eating a spoon full of the rice.

"We could head to my place for a while. It's in Kyoto." Ryoga said, looking curiously at Ranma.

"Ryoga you idiot. Your place is in Minato ward." Ranma said, looking disbelievingly at his friend.

"Really? I could have sworn it was in Kyoto."

Ranma just sighed and flicked a stone at Ryoga's leg. "Trust me. It's in Minato ward. Besides, we can't go there. We're in China at the moment."

"Really?" Ryoga asked, blinking rapidly at Ranma. "I just figured we were in the mountains around Tokyo."

Ranma face faulted, hard. "Ryoga. You are an idiot."

"I resent that remark!" Ryoga yelled, standing up and dropping his rice bowl to the ground.

"We'll fight about it tomorrow." Ranma said, stretching and yawning with the grace of a wildcat. "I'm tired."

Ryoga nodded. "Yeh, I guess I am to. See you in the morning." Saying this, Ryoga headed for his tent, which was about thirty feet from the fire. Idly, he wondered how he had managed to make the trip without getting lost but dismissed it as he crawled into the tent and under the sleeping bag.

Ranma doused the fire with a bucket of water from a local, non Jusenkyo, spring and walked over to his tent as well. Crawling in, he tossed and turned until he finally gave up on his sleeping bag and lay on the tent floor, whereupon he fell asleep.

Notes.

This is NOT a Nuku Nuku crossover… it just seemed like a remarkably appropriate name.

Also, it won't be updated much. Sorry. It's an enjoyment fic with no plot, so I don't know when I'll write more.

All purpose uncultured cat person Ranma Saotome.

Chapter 2, dreams, springs and Amazon Misunderstandings.

Ranma Saotome was dreaming. He didn't know this, but he was. In the dream, he was in a deep, black pit that was filled with small furry animals. To his surprise, the animals weren't scratching and biting as they usually were. The creatures were rubbing against his legs and back, purring. Timidly, Ranma reached out towards one of the small animals which circled him, picking it up.

It was a small white cat, looking at him with bright, innocent eyes. For some reason, when Ranma touched the cat he didn't have any fear. "Hey little guy." He said, slowly stroking the cat's head. It was then that Ranma realized that he wasn't six years old as he always was when he had this nightmare. He was his full sixteen years of age, and he had a layer of black fur covering the hand that was holding the cat.

"What the heck's goin on?" Ranma asked, looking at the cat. As he said this, the small white cat disintegrated into his right hand, leaving a small patch. "What the hell?" He yelled, blinking at the splotch of white fur that now lay on the back of his hand. As he said this, a black cat rubbed up against him and he picked it up, holding it and stroking it with opposite hands. Suddenly, the black cat went the way of the white one and he knew that if his fur wasn't black, he would be able to see a black blotch on that hand.

Looking back at his right hand, which had the white blotch on the back, Ranma once again wondered what was going on before the dream ended and he woke up, slowly stretching out of the small ball that he had slept in on the ground. Stretching his back, Ranma walked out of the tent on all fours, heading towards a nearby spring to take a bath.

Completely forgetting where he was, Ranma leapt into the spring, only taking note of the short bamboo poll that was sticking out of it in order to avoid it. Feeling a rather strange sensation, Ranma looked down to see a female body, still covered in fur, however it was now red. 'Oh right. Forgot about that.' Ranma thought, as she stretched out in the refreshingly cool water. Even if she had to be a girl to do it, taking a bath felt really good. The water seemed to energize her, as if there was something in it that was being infused into her body.

Suddenly, Ranma heard a panicked voice yelling at her. "Oh Mr. Customer. What you doing washing in spring. You want make curse worse?"

That's when Ranma realized what she was doing. Leaping out of the Jusenkyo spring, she shook the water out of her fur, being careful not to hit the guide.

"That strange." The little man said, looking Ranma's form over. The fact that she was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts meant that he had a rather unrestricted, and interesting, view but he put that aside in order to study her intently. "That spring of drowned Rabbit. Very tragic story of Rabbit who drown in spring 1,600 year ago… but you not get curse."

Ranma looked herself over. Cat ears, fur, tail… Very disturbing but nothing that could be described as part of a rabbit. She shrugged. "Maybe the springs don't effect me anymore." She said, looking confusedly at the water.

"I no know. Case like you not happen in VERY long time. Only one like was Yeti Riding Bull and carrying Crane and Eel but that one spring."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Yeti riding… never mind." She said, shaking her head.

"hey Ranma! What's going on!" Ryoga yelled, sticking his head out of his tent.

"Nothin Ryoga. You getting up?" Ranma asked, turning towards her friend and rival.

Ryoga's eyes bulged out of his head and he fell forward, his nose streaming blood.

"What's his problem?" Ranma asked, looking at the guide. The older man had the decency to blush as he pointed at Ranma's exposed chest. "So? What's your point?" Ranma asked, looking down at herself. Suddenly realizing that she was female, a state that she still hadn't really come to terms with, Ranma blushed fiercely and dove into her tent to grab a T-shirt.

Later on that morning, Ryoga kept shooting strange glances at Ranma, who was once again male and cooking breakfast.

Ranma sighed in exasperation. "Look Ryoga. I'm sorry about earlier, Okay?" Ranma said, noticing the eternal wanderer's discomfort.

Ryoga blushed for a moment, almost suffering a second nose bleed at the mental image of Ranma's female form, Red and black fur glistening with water, turning and facing him almost naked. Shaking his head fiercely, he mentally berated himself. 'She's really Ranma, and besides. She's half cat. It'd never work out.. Ryoga, how could you think of RANMA like that!' Shaking his head rapidly, Ryoga changed the subject. "So, when are we heading out?"

Ranma shrugged. "How about around Noon. The guide said that we could find something out about my curse at some Amazon Village a little bit down the trail."

Ryoga nodded. "All right. Sounds good to me." Suddenly noticing that the rice on the fire was burning, he quickly took the pot off and scooped out two bowls, offering one to his friend.

"Thanks." Ranma said, lowering his face to the bowl and starting to eat.

"Ranma… what are you doing?" Ryoga asked, giving Ranma a funny look.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking up at Ryoga with a small amount of rice stuck to his chin. Suddenly realizing what he had been doing, he blinked in confusion. "Sorry Ryoga. Think I'm pickin up some bad habits from the cat."

Ryoga laughed. "So long as you don't go clawing our tents to pieces, I don't really mind."

Ranma growled in annoyance at Ryoga, causing some of the hares on the back of his neck to rays.

"Damn it Saotome. That sounds creepy." Ryoga said, shivering. Ranma just shrugged it off and continued eating, this time in the normal way.

Later that morning, Ranma sat in front of a small tree, studying his hands. The palm portion was padded, similar to an animal's paws, however it had five opposable digits similar to a normal person's. His nails seemed longer than usual, almost like short claws. What really held his attention however, was a white blotch on the back of his right hand. 'So that wasn't a dream?' He wondered, studying the patch of white fur.

Something else that struck him odd was the fact that staring at such a… feline… appendage didn't cause him any fear. In fact, if he were to run into a normal cat, he didn't think it would cause him any fear either. This was different from the day before, when he had just tried to ignore the changes in his body in order to stay sane.

Remembering back to the battle the day before, Ranma looked at the knuckles of his hands, thinking of the claws that he had shredded Ryoga's combat umbrella with. He knew what that thing was made of. The Hibiki Umbrella style was heavily based on strength, and that umbrella mostly consisted of lead with a small amount of duranium coating it's inner edge. It should have been impossible to cut it with a full set of industrial tools, let alone his bare hands.

Flexing his fingers slightly, Ranma was startled to see a set of white claws burst from between the knuckles. 'Weren't they red yesterday?' he thought, before holding up his left hand and doing the same thing. To his surprise, a set of black claws popped from that hand, however they seemed a lot shorter and weaker than the white ones.

Concentrating hard, Ranma caused both sets to turn red and even out, at about three quarters the length of his white claws. Slashing forward at the tree he was sitting in front of, Ranma watched in amazement as it fell into two pieces, falling to the ground with a loud thud.

Ranma spun as he heard Ryoga clapping behind him. "That was a cool trick." Ryoga said, pointing at the felled tree. "Now ya wanna spar with me?"

Ranma shrugged and grinned, wildly, revealing a set of fangs similar to what Ryoga used to have.

After about twenty minutes of light sparring, the two martial artists stopped in order to save their energy. They were going to head out at lunch time, after all.

Ranma had beaten Ryoga in the sparring session, having gotten used to the changes his body had gone through and finding most of them to be an improvement. He was a lot faster, and although he wasn't any stronger he wasn't any weaker either. The only drawback he could see that he had was that he couldn't take as hard a hit without feeling it, and he wasn't much of an endurance fighter to begin with.

After their small sparring session, Ranma and Ryoga packed up their camp and walked off, leaving Jusenkyo and it's strange little guide in piece. "I glad to see them go." The guide said, waving at the young boys as they walked off. "They too too strange ones." Saying this, the guide turned to his hut and walked in, closing the door and heading for the main living area to read a good book.

Two days later, A red haired cat girl and a boy carrying a traveling pack walked down a trail, covered in water.

"You know Ranma." The boy said, glaring at the redhead. "If you hadn't shredded my umbrella we wouldn't be soaking wet."

"Yeash. How many times do I have to apologise for that?" Ranma complained, flicking her water covered tail irritatedly at Ryoga.

Ryoga just kept grumbling as the two martial artists walked down the trail.

Meanwhile, a little ways down the trail from the two travelers, The Amazon warrior Lu Pha was looking through a pair of binoculars that the village had gotten several years ago. They made the job of keeping watch for visitors and intruders much easier. Seeing two people walking towards the village, she quickly noted their features. There was a black haired boy with a bandana, as well as a red haired girl in what looked like a Japanese fighting costume. Looking the two over a bit more, Lu Pha saw that the boy wore a bandana in what looked like the pattern of a Cheetah, and the girl was… part tiger? 'Are they…' Lu Pha said, her eyes widening.

Dropping her binoculars, Lu Pha ran towards the village. Running into the main gates, she began to yell. )The Musk are on their way! Get ready for battle! The Musk are coming!) Suddenly, the battle celebration that had been occurring in the centre of the village came to an abrupt halt and the two fighters on the log,, Xian Pu and Do well, jumped off.

)What is going on child?) Elder Ku Lon asked, hopping up on her matriarchal honour staff.

)I saw two Musk warriors coming down the trail, Honoured Elder.) Lu Pha said, panting heavily from her run. )One was a normal looking Male with a Cheetah skin Bandana and the other was a tiger woman.)

Cologne raised her eyebrows. The musk very rarely used female warriors, generally subscribing to the reverse of the attitude that the Amazons favoured. Gesturing quietly for a small group of elite warriors, including her great granddaughter, to come forward, Cologne lead the group to the village entrance.

Standing at the entrance to the village, swords drawn and ready, The small squad of warriors kept a look out for the reported Musk. While the tribe of Animal Warriors very rarely came this far south of the cursed springs, It was usually very bad news when they did. Spotting the two travelers, Xian Pu pointed her Bonbori at them. )There are the Musk.) She commented, pulling a second bonbori out of stuff space and clutching them tightly.

Cologne narrowed her eyes, trying to get a better look at the enemy.

"Hey. They don't look friendly…" Ranma muttered, looking at the group of warrior women in front of her and Ryoga.

"Yeh." Ryoga agreed, unslinging a small staff that he carried in lu of an umbrella when he couldn't carry it around. "We'd better be careful."

)He drew a weapon…) Shampoo muttered, narrowing her eyes. Raising her Bonbori, she charged.

)No! Wait child!) Cologne yelled, trying to pogo after her great granddaughter. )They are too strong for you alone.)

Shampoo didn't listen as she charged the male who had pulled a staff from his pack and raised her Bonbori into the air. With a wordless battle cry, Shampoo swung out with her bonbori, slamming into Ryoga's extended staff. Since his staff was made out of the same materials as his umbrella, Shampoo found her bonbori's head crumpled around it and her right hand hurting rather severely. Growling in frustration, Shampoo swung out with a strike that would have landed in Ryoga's torso if the eternal wanderer hadn't acted first. With a small THUD sound, Shampoo hit the ground. With that, the rest of the group charged at Ranma and Ryoga.

A few minutes later, Ranma dodged out of the way of a spear as she looked over at her traveling companion. "How exactly did we get into this mess, Ryoga?" She asked, lashing out with energy claws and slicing the tip off of the spear. She had been working with her claws over the last few days, and she was getting very good at controlling them. She just had to be REALLY careful with them, as she hadn't found anything they couldn't cut through, at least not in their red form. The white claws seemed to do nothing to the surroundings and the black ones were too dull to do any real good.

Franticly dodging two Amazons who brought their swords together on her position, Ranma yowled in pain as they cut her tail. Hissing, she spun and sliced the swords off at the hilts. The Amazons who were holding the swords looked at each other, stunned, for a moment before backing off, as they were both weapons masters.

After Ranma and Ryoga had dispatched the last of the young amazons, they looked around to see if there were any other enemies. Seeing an old woman perched on a staff, the two martial artists groaned.

"We don't gotta fight you, do we?" Ranma asked, looking warily at the old woman.

She cackled. "No. As long as you do not have any hostile intent towards my tribe, I don't wish to pick a quarrel with a master of the Neko Ken."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, her eyes widening. "How'd you know about…"

Ranma was interrupted by a groaning sound from the pile of warriors that she and Ryoga had defeated. Suddenly, one of the warriors got up, nursing a bump on the top of her head. Shaking her head rapidly, Shampoo's eyes came into focus to see the boy with the yellow and black spotted bandana, standing next to the red haired tiger girl. Staggering forward, She reached out, grabbed the boy by the face and planted a kiss on his lips. "Wo da airen."

Ryoga collapsed, a trickle of blood coming from his nose. Ranma just started laughing and Cologne looked on in slight amusement.

"So, why'd she kiss him?" Ranma asked, looking from the purple haired girl to Ryoga and then to the old woman.

"That is the Kiss of Marriage." The old woman said, seemingly the only one in the group who could speak Japanese. "Your friend is now married to my great granddaughter and quite a catch he is!"

Ranma blinked rapidly, and then keeled over with louder gales of laughter. The look on Ryoga's face when he found out about this would be priceless.

As Ranma laughed, the rest of the group of warriors came to, either glaring at Ranma or looking longingly at Ryoga. As they caught sight of Shampoo with a happy grin on her face, the group as a whole turned to Ranma. Cologne rapidly came between the group and the redhead. )STOP! This one is a master of the cat fist. You have no chance of defeating her, even in a group, and you know that the village cannot help you in a kiss of death hunt.)

The girls reluctantly backed down as Ranma pulled herself together. She had heard the word Neko Ken in the old woman's comments to her people and she was curious about how she knew about it. "Excuse me…" Ranma stopped herself from saying something like 'old Woman' as the elder had been reasonably pleasant so far, "Elder. I was wondering how you knew about My Neko Ken training?"

The old woman looked at Ranma for a moment and cackled. "Child, there are many things I know. Come into the village and bring my new Son in law and I will explain." With that, the old woman pogoed off.

Shrugging, Ranma slung Ryoga over her shoulder and walked into the village, following her. The Amazons followed Ranma, Shampoo having a small smile on her face whenever she caught sight of Ryoga.

END.

Notes. How did Ranma and Ryoga beat up a whole group of Amazons? I'm assuming that Shampoo's the absolute best in her tribe, and Ryoga got rid of her with a lucky blow. Some of the others were weapons users, which Ranma disarmed with her claws, and the others just weren't very good.

ARG! I gotta write more AOL but I've got writer's block. Someone HELP!

WARNING! This chapter's a lot of explanation.

Chapter 3. Training at the village and farewell to a friend.

Most of the residents of the Amazon village looked on in surprise as their greatest elder lead what appeared to be two Musk through the centre of town. True, one of the two seemed to be unconscious, and the great warrior Xian Pu was walking behind them, however she seemed to be smiling gleefully at the unconscious one. As the group disappeared into the Matriarch's home, speculation ran rampant around the village, the few warriors who had been in the attack party being mobbed by curious friends and family.

Ranma walked into the large hut, setting Ryoga against a wall and sighing in relief. All those villagers staring at her made her nervous. The old woman hopped off of her staff when she got into the hut, walking over to a pot full of water and putting it over a burning fire.

The young purple haired woman sat and cared for Ryoga, who's only injury was a bloody nose.

Coming back from putting the kettle of hot water on, The old woman spoke up. "Hello outsiders. I am elder Ku Lon of the Chinese Amazons. Most Japanese call me Cologne. May I ask who you are and what you want in the village?"

Ranma scratched the back of her head. "Well, I'm Ranma Saotome and the guy with the nose bleed is Ryoga Hibiki. We're wandering martial artists and I've kinda got this curse…"

"I know about your curse." Cologne said, stopping Ranma cold. "Not even the most animalistic Musk troops have ears or a tale like that." Saying this, she grabbed Ranma's tail. Ranma yelped in pain, as the cut from the sword was still open and painful. "So which springs did you fall into?"

"I fell into the springs of drowned Girl and Cat." Ranma said, looking at her strangely. "Which did you think I fell into?"

The old woman smacked Ranma on the head with her staff. "Show some respect, girl."

Ranma rubbed the back of her head and glared at Cologne, as the old woman walked over to the fire and grabbed the now slightly warm kettle of water. Throwing it on Ranma, She blinked as the cat girl was replaced by a cat boy.

"Aiya! He almost cute as Airen!" The purple haired girl said, in extremely broken Japanese.

Cologne raised an eyebrow. She had expected the cat girl to turn into a normal girl, or a normal boy if she was unlucky. Turning into a cat boy was not in the equation. "Don't tell me that you jumped into the two springs one after another?" She asked, rubbing her forehead.

"It was my pop's fault." Ranma said, a look of anger crossing across his face. "So you know what's happened to me?"

"Yes. Normally, two Jusenkyo curses mix, however most people are forced to wait a while before jumping into a second spring, either due to shock or just strange circumstances. You managed to get knocked into the drowned cat spring while still wet from the drowned girl spring, correct?" Cologne said, interrogatively.

Ranma nodded slowly.

Cologne continued. "Jusenkyo's magic is cumulative. New magic is added to old magic. The problem is that you overdosed. You're so full of Jusenkyo magic that it's running into your normal form, and your body is probably about half fuelled by it. The springs don't effect you anymore, correct?"

Ranma nodded again and then spoke up with a question. "How do you know all this anyways?"

"One of the Amazons' greatest enemies was created in the same way you were. A great warrior named Saffron leapt into the spring of the drowned fire bird and then, in a panic, leapt into the spring of drowned man to try and cure himself. The magic of the springs as well as the natural magic of his cursed form made him very powerful. We tried to use the springs to make him less of a threat but he just absorbed the power of the waters and made himself more powerful. The only difference between him and yourself is that you jumped into a different spring than your natural form and your cursed form doesn't have any magical abilities to add to Jusenkyo's own."

"So I'm some sorta magic battery or something?" Ranma asked, in confusion.

Cologne shrugged. "Essentially, yes."

Ranma face faulted and then picked himself back up. "All right then, how about the Neko Ken. How do ya know about that?"

The old woman smiled. "You don't see Chi claws like that every day, you know."

Ranma just dismissed it as he heard a groaning sound. Turning to face the direction that it came from, he saw that Ryoga was awake and the purple haired girl was tending to him lovingly.

"Airen awake." The girl said, dabbing at Ryoga's forehead with a damp rag.

Ryoga sat up, leaning against the wall, when the girl's words sank in. He had been traveling for a long time, and as a result, he understood some Chinese. Gulping, he looked at the purple haired girl. "Did you just call me… your husband?" He asked, his eyes widening.

"Yes. Strong Ryoga Shampoo's Airen. It Amazon law." Shampoo said, cheerfully, snuggling up next to Ryoga.

Ryoga desperately tried to stop a nose bleed, managing to keep himself conscious. "Th… that's nice." He stammered, a small goofy grin spreading across his face as Shampoo snuggled into him deeper.

As Ryoga sat in a stupor, Ranma shook his head, snickering. 'Just like in Jr. High.' He thought, but had the good sense not to say it aloud. "So, can Ryoga N' me stay for a day or two?" He asked, looking back at Cologne. "Well, I guess Ryoga's stayin for a while longer if he's married now N' all."

Cologne nodded. "Yes, you may stay in a guest house of the village. I would like to study your… strange curse a little further, if only to see if we can find a way to fend off Saffron with it. In return, I may teach you a small amount of our wisdom."

"You mean like martial arts techniques?" Ranma said, his eyes shining with excitement.

Cologne blinked in surprise. Most people asked for ancient Amazon lore or the locations of mystical places. "Well, we have many techniques, however we can only teach you a few."

"Sounds good to me!" Ranma said, grinning with a hint of fang. Ryoga, who was still being cared for by Shampoo, agreed with a short nod.

Later on that night, Ranma lay on a small caut, looking up at the ceiling. The day so far had been interesting. He had learned something about what he was and there was a promise of learning many martial arts techniques from a wise elder like Cologne. Best of all, he got to see the look of shock on Ryoga's face when Shampoo told him that they were married.

Rolling over on his side, Ranma's right ear twitched as he heard something. Straining his enhanced hearing, he heard it again. It was the light sound of foot steps, as if someone was trying to sneak into the room. Rolling to his feet, Ranma snapped his right hand glowing white claws out, to reveal the startled face of Shampoo.

"Oh. It's only you." Ranma breathed, snapping his claws back into his hand.

"Aiya… Shampoo try sneak in see Ryoga. No mean startle you." Shampoo said, still a little nervous.

"Jeas Shampoo. You're real eager ta get into his bed, eh?" Ranma said, looking at her questioningly.

"It what Airen and wife supposed do. Strange cat boy try stop shampoo?" Shampoo asked, a slight note of growling entering her voice.

"Nah. Not really. It's just that Ryoga's a real shy guy, y'know? When I was in Jr. High with him, he once ran down the street screaming when a girl walked up and glomped him. Try n' be more subtle, okay? Oh. And try not to wake me up when ya do it." Saying this, Ranma lay back down on his bed role, leaving Shampoo to think about what he had told her.

'be more subtle? I wonder how I do that.' She thought, before creeping out of Ranma and Ryoga's hut, heading for her great grandmother's house to ask her about it.

The next morning, Ranma was awoken by the sounds of water splashing over someone. Stretching out of the ball that he had curled into during the night, he cracked open his eyes and saw a sputtering Ryoga, with Cologne standing at the foot of his bed and holding a cast iron bucket.

"What did you do that for?" Ryoga said, ringing out his bandanna. Ranma wondered how he managed to do this, as Ryoga seemed to have an infinite supply of them.

"Get up son in law!" Cologne said, a small smile on her face. It's time to see how strong you really are."

"Can I join in?" Ranma asked, standing from his position on his bed role.

"I'd be glad to train you as well, Ranma." Cologne said, looking over at him. "We will consider this part of my side of the deal, however."

"Sure." Ranma said, shrugging.

After getting dressed and eating a quick breakfast, Ranma and Ryoga were lead out into a forest clearing by Cologne. "All right." Cologne said, looking the two over. "First, you two will fight each other in order to show me your skill level."

Ranma and Ryoga nodded, getting into fighting stances.

And so the training began. First came sparring, then speed and endurance training, then more sparring. Cologne was a very tough teacher, however she didn't have anything on Genma's teaching methods. She was, however, better at explaining her motives than Ranma's father, and thus Ranma got the point of her Techniques a lot faster. Ranma and Ryoga spent a few days training, while Shampoo stayed away from them, trying to figure out how to be more subtle about courting Ryoga. Every time she tried to glomp her Airen, he would pass out with a nose bleed.

It was on Ranma's third day in the village that something really strange happened. Ranma and Ryoga were eating lunch, Shampoo sitting on the other side of the camp fire from them and eating her own meal. She had been coming out to learn from her great grandmother as her Airen trained, and she was as ravenously hungry as the two male martial artists.

Suddenly, a small iron ball on the end of a chain streaked between Ranma and Ryoga, knocking the soup bowl out of Ranma's hand.

"Hey! Who did that?" Ranma asked, turning around to see a boy in a set of white robes standing and glaring at him.

"I did. I'll get you for beating my beautiful Shampoo and forcing her to be your wife!" The robed man said, pushing a pair of coke bottle glasses up on his forehead.

"Huh? I think you wanna fight Ryoga about that." Ranma said, blinking at the other boy.

The robed boy turned to Shampoo, and said, "Fine then. DIE!" Whipping his hands out, the robed boy flung a silver bladed dagger out of the sleeves of his robes, it flying at Shampoo too fast for her to dodge. Instinctively, Ranma and Ryoga both leapt to stop the knife. Since Ranma was the faster of the two he got to it first, trying to catch it. The knife nicked his hand instead, being diverted away from Shampoo.

That's when Ranma let out a loud yowl of pain, sinking to the ground and holding his hand.

"What wrong cat boy?" Shampoo asked, walking over to Ranma.

"I… don't know." Ranma growled, his teeth gritted in intense pain. It feels like my hand is on fire."

Shampoo grabbed Ranma's hand and started to examine it as Ryoga squared off against the boy with the glasses.

"You hurt my friend and almost killed Shampoo. I'm gunna pound you flat!" Ryoga yelled, cracking his knuckles loudly.

"I am Mu Tsu of the Chinese Amazons and I challenge you for the hand of Xian Pu!" The boy cried, throwing out a brace of chains that Ryoga let rap around his right hand. Jerking on the chains hard, Ryoga caused Mousse to fly towards him. With a loud cry, he whipped his arm around and sent Mousse into the air, smashing him into a tree. The robed boy twitched a few times and then lay against the tree.

After the rather short fight, Cologne pogoed into the clearing where Ranma, Ryoga, Shampoo and the unconscious Mousse were, looking around in confusion. "Can someone tell me what is going on here?" She asked, blinking rapidly.

"Great grand mother. Mousse attack and hurt Ryoga friend Cat boy. He try to protect Shampoo but shampoo think Mousse use poisoned blade."

Cologne pogoed over to Ranma, taking his cut hand from shampoo's grasp. Looking over it, she hmmed noncommittally. "I don't think this is the result of a poison." She said, looking at the wound on the hand, which seemed to be surrounded with a burn.

Pogoing over to Mousse's discarded knife, Cologne examined it. "Hmm… Silver. That is a very magically receptive metal."

Ranma, who had just managed to block out enough of the pain for coherent thought, spoke up. "What does that mean, elder?"

"That means that this blade sucked some of your magic out of you when it cut you. That burn is the result. I suspect you have a weakness to silver… quite interesting. I wonder if Saffron has this same weakness."

"Oh great." Ranma muttered, rubbing the top of his head with his uninjured hand. "That's just what I need."

Shortly afterwards, Mousse had been hauled off and Ranma, Ryoga and Shampoo were sitting around the fire again, Ranma having a wrap put onto his hand with some healing salve in it. "So what was his story?" Ryoga asked, indicating the spot where mousse had fallen unconscious earlier.

Shampoo sighed. "He say he love Shampoo long time. She say know long time ago but he no give up. Now shampoo have Airen, he attack Ryoga for being around Shampoo. He scare all males in village away from Shampoo, so Shampoo need strong outsider male who she love or Mousse will kill."

"That guy isn't going to kill me." Ryoga said, looking determined. "Don't worry, shampoo."

Shampoo thanked Ryoga by hugging him, causing him to lock up for a second but slowly return the hug. The few days of Shampoo slowly turning up the level of physical interaction had paid off, slowly desensitizing Ryoga to her glomps.

Ranma just finished his lunch, walking away from the other two, who were getting far too cozy for his liking.

Walking to the edge of the village, Ranma sat on one of the walls, looking out over the forests of China.

Hearing a tapping sound, Ranma turned around to see Cologne hopping up on her stick. "Hello Ranma." Cologne said, stopping and hopping up to the wall next to him.

"Hello Elder." Ranma said, looking out over the trees again.

"What is wrong?" Cologne asked, seeing that Ranma wore a slightly downcast expression.

Ranma sighed. "I think I'm gunna head out soon. I wanna get back to Japan, see if I can find any of my family. Ryoga's happy here, though. I kinda liked traveling with a friend along, y'know?"

Cologne nodded solemnly. "Well, we will miss you here. You are a very… interesting fighter."

Ranma laughed. "Thanks elder."

Smiling slightly, Cologne withdrew a small scroll case from inside her robes. "Here's the rest of my side of our little deal. It's a collection of some of the weaker Amazon secret techniques. Don't show it to anyone."

"Thanks elder!" Ranma said, this time with a larger smile.

"No problem, Ranma. Don't forget to come back to the tribe and visit me in my old age. An old woman like me needs young ones around."

Ranma smiled again, before jumping off of the wall and heading for the hut that he had shared with Ryoga for the last few days. Picking up his pack, he walked back to the clearing where Ryoga and Shampoo were still sitting.

"Hey Ranma. What's with the pack?" Ryoga asked, looking curiously at his friend.

"I'm headed out to go back on the road. Probably gunna go to Japan." Ranma responded, adjusting his pack straps to be more comfortable.

"Hold on. I'll come with you." Ryoga said, hopping up from the ground.

"No man. Stay here with Shampoo. You're both happy, I can tell." Ranma said, smirking at his friend. "I'll see you some time."

Shampoo walked up next to Ryoga. "Shampoo miss cat boy friend of Ryoga. You come back soon, yes?"

Ranma nodded to Shampoo, before walking away from the clearing and out of the village's main gates.

END!

Notes.

You may wonder why Ranma is showing Cologne respect. Honestly, we've never seen Ranma's behaviour with an elderly person who hasn't gotten on his bad side. Cologne used the cat's tongue the second time he met her and Happosai groped her the first time he showed up… Yeh, real good ways to earn respect.

Oh. I know I skimmed over Ryoga Shampoo. I'm gunna write a bit about their life in the village later, but if someone else wants to take a wack at it before I get around to it, mail your copy to me and I'll put it up as a side story and give you credit.

Note. For some reason, answering questions about relationships annoys me. Especially if I've answered them before. I am affixing this warning to the end of the first chapter of every fic I wrote from now on. If you have a question about a couple, please read my author profile first, under the "Things I won't do" section. I'll update it with couples that will NEVER happen in my fics every once in a while. If you ask me a question that was answered in my profile, I won't answer you.

Sorry for the fast pace of the last chapter. Some day, I'm going to rewrite it into two parts and expand it.

This chapter's kind of angsty… I think.

Chapter 4, a father's betrayal and a dragon battle.

Genma Saotome sat in a small camp in the middle of the forest, pondering his situation. It had been four days since he had fled Jusenkyo, and due to an accident involving a pot of hot soup he'd figured out the triggers to the curse. The only problem with this was that it didn't solve his main problem. If his son went into the Neko Ken every time he got hit by cold water, Genma would always have to fear any rain showers. When the boy was in the Neko Ken even the Umi Sen Ken techniques didn't help, as he could just sniff him out.

Genma had heard of one thing that gave him hope, however. This morning, a group of people wearing animal skins were walking down a path, talking about a magical artefact that their people possessed. It seemed that they wanted to lock some sort of wolf as a human girl with the springs of Jusenkyo, and they were bringing it to their village to find something called the "Chiisuden" in order to do it. If Genma could get a hold of that artefact, he could lock himself and his son in human form, curing the curse that way.

Genma had followed the group of men to their village, however there were a large number of guards there and he needed to plan out his assault before attempting to take the artefact.

After many hours of planning, which were pretty much wasted as Genma had finally just decided to use the Umi Sen Ken to sneak past the guards, Genma packed up his camping gear, hiding it under a bush for him to come and get later. Traveling down the trail to the beast men's village, Genma used a handy tarp that he had taken from his tent to use the shooting star cloth technique and then began to sneak through the guard posts into the centre of the camp.

Lord Herb of the Musk Dynasty was having a good day. He had just mastered one of his family's mid level techniques, the Ryu Ten Shi Dan, and was well on his way to mastering some of the most devastating moves that a part dragon Musk could learn. Not to mention that the day when he would choose a woman to marry was only a few months away, and on that day he would become the king of the Musk.(1)

Walking through the centre of the musk village, Herb saw his two retainers, Lime and Mint, sitting at a small table and drinking Sake. He shook his head disgustedly. Those two were some of the dumbest Musk around, however they were good fighters and made excellent bodyguards.

As Herb walked through the village, something struck him as strange. His Chi senses, which thanks to his part dragon ancestry were always active to a very long range, were picking something up. It wasn't an unfamiliar life force, but more a gap in the life around him. Walking to the part of the village where he felt the lack of Chi, Herb saw several small puffs of dust coming up from the ground where someone seemed to be walking. Holding out his hand, Herb tried his new attack. "Ryu Ten Shi Dan!" And launched a medium sized ball of Chi at the Chi void.

As the ball struck the void, a fat and bespectacled Japanese man fell out, charred and blackened.

"Hmm… what is this?" Herb asked, looking the man over. The fat Japanese man just groaned, twitching spasmodically every once in a while.

"Mint, Lime!" Herb yelled, calling his two guards over.

"Yes lord Herb?" Mint asked, as the two ran up to him.

"Take this man up to the citadel." Herb ordered, pointing at the unconscious man. Lime and Mint nodded, grabbing the man by the shoulders.

Genma internally smiled as he felt the two guards picking him up. They would lead him to where the Chiisuden was kept, and then he could grab it and escape… although that Chi blast was a lot more painful than he would have preferred.

Half an hour later, Genma was laying on the floor of the musk Citadel. "Wake up outsider!" Herb yelled, throwing a pale of water over Genma's form. To Herb's surprise, the man shifted into a giant black and white Panda. "Ah, so you have a Jusenkyo curse." Herb said, scratching his chin.

Genma grofed slowly as he looked around the room he was in. There was a throne in the middle, as well as torches lining the walls and a small bucket and ladle sitting at the back of the room. 'That must be it.' Genma thought, eyeing the bucket.

Herb continued talking, oblivious of Genma's thoughts. "Now, I want to know what you were doing sneaking around the village of the Musk people. If you can't tell me in your current form, I will get some hot water."

Genma nodded quickly, hoping that the other man would leave to get the water.

Herb sighed, walking to the door and out of it.

Genma gave the Panda equivalent of a wide grin as he ran for the bucket and ladle, scooping them up. As Genma was running for the door to escape, Herb walked in with the water.

Seeing Genma and his precious cargo, Herb swung out a leg and hit the Panda with it. Having not had anyone to spar with to get used to his current form, Genma dropped the bucket and ladle, stumbling back and falling on his back.

"So you wanted the Chiisuden, then?" Herb asked, bending down and picking up the Musk treasure. "Well then, I suppose this is a good enough punishment for your crimes." Saying this, Herb reached for the bowl of water he had brought into the room, planning to heat it up with his Chi. Poring the bowl into the bucket, Herb flung it at the Panda.

"Grofe?" Genma said, his eyes wide with surprise.

"There you go. I've just locked your form just like you wished to do to some poor unfortunate soul. Poetic justice, yes?" Herb asked, smirking evilly.

Genma's eyes widened further, this time in fear. He was locked in his cursed form? If he had used this thing on Ranma it would have permanently locked him? With a growl of frustration and anger at the person who was tormenting him, Genma jumped at Herb in order to take the ladle away from him. Herb, not expecting such an attack, fumbled with the ladle, dropping it and letting Genma get his hands on it. Running out of the Musk Citadel, Genma dodged Herb's Chi blasts as he went, running for the edge of the village.

"Get him!" Herb yelled, angrily. "He is stealing one of the Musk's sacred treasures!" The village quickly exploded into an uproar, many warriors grabbing spears and chasing after the Panda. Herb jumped as high as he could into the air and then used his flying technique to chase the Panda at a faster speed.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, Ranma was sitting in a clearing, practicing with his energy claws and his new speed. Having lost his only sparring partner, he was forced to work more on technique than anything else. He had tried the first of the techniques on Cologne's scroll, the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, however it wasn't created with fur covered hands in mind. He had been trying to find a way to train in it without the fire, however the only thing he had come up with was picking the chestnuts out of water instead, and there wasn't enough water in the area where he was to do that at the moment.

Swinging out with his energy claws, Ranma worked on slicing very small amounts of bark off of a tree, working on his precision. So far, he could get down to about two inches without slowing down from a standard punching speed, but that wasn't nearly precise enough with the kind of weapons he was dealing with.

Losing his concentration on the claws for a second while swinging out with his left hand, Ranma's energy claws turned a deep black. Cursing as he thought hitting the tree with the dull claws would really hurt his hand, Ranma wasn't able to stop the swing in time and the ends of the claws dug into the wood.

Ranma blinked as he realized that he was feeling something strange. His Chi reserves were being increased, as if energy was flowing into him. Then he caught sight of the tree. Jerking his claws out of the wood, the bark and wood around where they had been berried crumbled to dust.

"Man. I'd better not do that to a person." He muttered, looking at the decomposed section of tree. As he contemplated what he had done, Ranma heard a rather familiar sound. In fact, he had heard that sound every time his father had done something really stupid. It was a crowd of people, charging through the forest. Curiously, Ranma ran through the trees, heading for the sound of the yelling people.

As Ranma ran through the trees, he heard the sound of an explosion. Exiting the tree line into a clearing, he saw the strangest thing he had seen so far in his short but eventful life.

In the middle of the clearing, his father, as a Panda, was franticly dodging energy blasts that were being thrown by a flying man. Sighing, Ranma ran into the middle of the clearing to intervene in the fight. Even if his father had abandoned him at Jusenkyo, he was the only family he had.

"Hey, Fly boy!" Ranma yelled, jumping in the way of a blast that would have hit the Panda dead on. "Why're ya attackin him?"

The flying man snorted as Ranma was pushed into the ground by his blast. "This… animal stole one of the sacred treasures of the Musk Dynasty. He must die for his offence!"

Ranma sighed. 'Damn it pop… why do you have to do this crap.' "Sorry, but I can't let you kill my pop." He said, before getting into a defensive stance in front of the slightly burnt form of the Panda. Genma, seeing a way to escape this really bad situation with his fur un burnt, threw the Chiisuden to his son and ran off into the forest.

"Damn it you coward!" Ranma yelled, his momentary distraction giving the floating man time to peg him with a powerful energy blast.

"Look. I'll give ya your treasure back, just don't keep chasin my pop." Ranma said, dodging Herb's second and third blasts while tossing the Chiisuden to him.

"I am sorry outsider, but your father must be punished for his crimes… and if you stand in my way, so must you." Herb said, catching the Chiisuden and slipping it into his armoured chest plate.

"Fine." Ranma growled, unsheathing his energy claws. He knew that he couldn't use them much against Herb without risking killing him, however they would be slightly useful.

Herb's eyes widened as he caught sight of the blades, but he kept firing his energy blasts at Ranma.

Since he was no good at long range combat, Ranma jumped at Herb's hovering form, slashing at him with his claws and leaving shallow gashes along his arms. Herb growled in pain and let himself lose altitude, coming into direct hand to hand conflict with Ranma. The two traded rapid blows for a few minutes, but it was evident that Ranma was outclassed. Herb didn't have as much raw skill as Ranma, however his strength and speed made up for it. After a long fight, Herb grabbed Ranma by his feline tale and swung him around. Ranma yowled in pain before being let go, slamming into the ground at the base of a tree. Getting up on trembling legs, Ranma glared at Herb. As Herb created a massive blast to finish Ranma off, he switched the claws on his left hand from red to black and held the hand out in front of his body, causing Herb's Chi to hit the edge of the claws before his body.

Ranma suddenly felt fire coursing through his nerves, from his hand and all through the rest of his arm. Desperately, He forced the Chi that he had absorbed out through his fingers, launching five small blasts back at Herb. Herb was hit by three of them, causing him to lose more height in the air.

"That was quite impressive outsider." Herb said, before smirking. "Try and absorb this! Ryu C'Hisho!"

Ranma's eyes widened as dozens of small, crescent shaped Chi blades came at him. Desperately trying to avoid them, several impacted his form before he could get out of the way.

Herb was now kneeling on one knee, panting slightly. "That… that didn't get you?" He asked, his eyes widening.

Ranma just lunged for Herb, knowing that the wounds he had received from the last attack would take him out soon. Somewhere in the back of his head, he wondered why he was even in this fight. His father had run away from the battle, leaving him alone against a more powerful opponent, and he was only fighting to save the old bastard's life. Dismissing these thoughts, Ranma lashed out with his right hand, which still had it's red claws, and inflicted a deep gash on Herb's arm.

Herb screamed in pain as he felt the Chi blade dig into his arm, but quickly shot the injured appendage forward anyways, hitting Ranma with a Ryu Ten Chi Dan in the face. Ranma flew back, collapsing to the ground, exhausted.

Herb staggered to his feet, walking towards his opponent. "You put up a good fight outsider. For that, I won't kill you."

"Th… Thanks a lot…" Ranma spat, glaring at his opponent.

Herb took the Chiisuden out of the breast plate of his scale armour, pouring some water out of the bucket and into the ladle. Splashing it over Ranma, he was surprised when the cat boy shifted into a red furred girl. 'Funny. I thought that was his cursed form.' Herb thought, before turning away.

Ranma blinked as he felt the water hit him. His curse, of course, took effect, however the water did something else. A sudden burst of energy infused Ranma's body, being sucked into it's magical reservoir before it could do it's intended job. It took a LOT of energy to lock a Jusenkyo curse, and now all of that power was being fed directly to Ranma, causing her reserves to fill almost instantly.

"Hey Fly boy!" Ranma said, standing with almost no pain in her body.

"Hmm?" Herb asked, before noticing that his opponent was back on it's feet. His eyes widened as he saw that the cuts from his Ryu C'Hisho had healed.

"Time to keep fighting!" Ranma yelled, charging at Herb and landing a single blow to his face. Herb, who had been overtaxed by using one of his most powerful attacks in the earlier part of the battle, collapsed with a large bruise on his forehead.

"Too easy." Ranma muttered, walking to the edge of the clearing where she and Herb had battled.

"I'm not done yet outsider." Herb growled, hauling himself to his feet. "I don't know how you're still standing but an insult to the Musk Dynasty like that which your father committed cannot be let pass."

Ranma was about to retort, when she remembered the scene of her father, running away as soon as the battle began. Sighing, Ranma looked at Herb. "Look. I… don't care anymore. Do whatever ya want with the old man. He's run off on me for the last time."

Herb blinked. "You mean you are not going to try to stop me anymore?"

"Na. Go ahead. Like I said, I don't care anymore." Ranma said, walking out of the clearing. Just then, the people of the Musk tribe came through the trees on the other side of the clearing, walking up to Herb.

"Lord Herb?" Mint asked, taking note of the bruise on his master's face. "Are you all right?"

Herb looked in the direction that the strange foreign warrior had gone off in. "I'm fine mint… let's go and find that Panda."

"Right!" Mint said, bounding off into the trees.

That night, Ranma sat at a camp fire, having boiled some water and used it to turn back to male form. Staring into the flames, he saw an image of his father's face. 'Pop… Why'd ya leave me like that?' He thought, before sighing and dousing the flames, going to his tent and crawling in for the night.

Notes.

(1). I'm making up a low level attack for HERB to use, as he hasn't quite mastered his higher level moves yet. I THINK it translates to Heavenly Dragon Death Shot.

Oh. If you're wondering how Ranma beat Herb, this is a year earlier, and I'm assuming that Herb has smaller Chi reserves. Also, Ranma had, in effect, two matches with time to rest in between while Herb had to keep fighting, after using a move that tires him out a lot.

I'm contemplating adding Gold digger to the disclaimer because Ranma's becoming more like a standard werecat every chapter... I didn't intend it that way, but will anyone HATE me if this becomes a GD crossover?

Chapter 5. explanations and bad puns.

Ranma stretched, enjoying the sensation of the sun on his fur. It was the day after his fight with Herb, and he was feeling very well rested. He always loved a good fight. Padding out of his tent, he groggily pulled out a cook pot and began cooking his breakfast while attempting to think of what he should do next. His "father" had proven that he couldn't count on him and Ranma didn't have much experience of traveling on his own. With a sigh, he decided to just wander around until he found a village or something and go from there.

Packing up his camp, he slung his backpack over his shoulder, heading off into the woods. For some reason he felt REALLY energetic today. Maybe it was that strange thing that floating guy had splashed him with the day before, but whatever it was, he liked it.

A distance away, Genma sat in the hot spring, looking at his fur covered hands in horror. He was a panda, forever. What that strange floating man had said was true, and he would never be a human again. What was almost as bad was that Ranma, his meal ticket, was probably locked as well. Genma had noticed that, although his son had still looked like a cat, he had been both male and coherent, but that didn't help him with his current predicament. With a resigned grofe, he climbed from the spring, walking on all fours to a nearby bamboo grove. Starting to munch, he had his first good surprise in a while. Bamboo tasted really, really good to pandas.

Later that day, Ranma was running through the forest, testing his top speed. It was significantly higher than it had once been, and he was a lot more agile now as well. Unfortunately, his eyes hadn't yet compensated for the higher speed and he missed a small outcropping on the trail in front of him. With a soft "oof" Ranma hit the ground, skidding about half a metre. "That hurt..." Ranma muttered, picking himself up off of the ground and searching for injuries. He blinked as he saw a cut on his arm, which closed up right in front of him. 'What the?' He wondered, before shrugging it off and turning to see what, exactly, he had tripped over.

Ranma blinked again as he saw a flash of brown cloth, covered in leaves. Squatting down, he brushed the leaves away to reveal a traveling pack. It was quite well hidden, having been completely invisible. If Ranma hadn't tripped over it he would never have seen it. After clearing away all of the debris, Ranma found that it was Genma's pack. He was just about to leave it there when he had a thought. Maybe Genma had been going somewhere, or maybe he knew of some good Dojos. Opening up the pack, Ranma saw a large amount of ration packs, something that pissed him off greatly as the old man had been saying that they were out of rations for the last two weeks, as well as some fighting Gi, his personal papers and two letters. Ranma didn't open the letters, but he saw that one was addressed to the Tendo Dojo in Nerima, and the other was addressed to someone named Nodoka Saotome.

'Nodoka Saotome?' Ranma thought, confused. He didn't know he had any relatives other than pop. If he had, he would have ran away to find them years ago. Memorizing the address of Nodoka Saotome, Ranma noticed something else in the bottom of the pack. Picking it up, he revealed a scroll, tied with a fraying rope and with a Kanji for "Forbidden" written on a seal taped across the knot. Shrugging, Ranma pocketed it. If it was Genma's then the old man had been holding back on him, and besides, it was far more likely that he had stolen it from somewhere. Putting the pack back together with everything in it accept for the scroll, Ranma continued on his way.

About an hour after he came across Genma's stuff, Ranma heard the sounds of someone screaming in fear. Startled, he ran towards the sounds. As the screams got closer, Ranma broke into a clearing, where a young girl was being stocked by a large cat, possibly a tiger. For a second, Ranma expected his fear of cats to well up and make him run away as it always had, but nothing happened. "Hey ugly!" He yelled, causing the animal to turn in the direction of the new noise.

The girl looked between the tiger and Ranma, still looking terrified and trying to find a method of escape.

Seeing this, Ranma jumped forward with his claws, cutting the tiger along the back. The big cat roared in pain, thrashing and trying to hit Ranma with it's own claws, but he dodged out of the way. Coming around to the animal's side, Ranma brought down his claws... and did what he had been fearing ever since he found out how sharp the claws were. He shredded the tiger in half, the two pieces falling to the ground with a wet THUMP.

Ranma looked between his hands and the tiger in fascinated horror for a second before he was reminded of the girl, who let out a small whimper and started to back away. Turning around, he saw her flinch away from him. He also saw that she had a deep gash along her right arm that would need treatment.

Ranma slowly and cautiously approached the girl, who flinched every time he took a step, and stretched out a hand. "I'm not gunna hurt ya." He said, in a soft tone. "C'mon now."

The girl, who looked to be about twelve years old, slowly reached out and took Ranma's hand, stepping closer to him. Ranma unslung his backpack with his other hand, reaching in and coming out with a gauze bandage. Carefully applying it to the girls arm, he tried to sooth her as she made soft whimpering noises at the pain.

As Ranma was finishing his work, he heard a loud, angry male voice. "What are you doing to my daughter?!" He turned quickly to see a man with a short staff and a mean look who was scowling hard at him.

"Sir. I was just..." Ranma stammered, wondering how he had gotten into this one.

"I don't want to hear it you damned were creature!" The man said, sinking into a low fighting stance and charging at Ranma.

"Wait!" The little girl said, running in front of Ranma and spreading out her arms.

The man came to a screeching halt, looking at the girl in confusion. "Teev, what are you doing? Get out of the way!"

"But daddy." The girl protested, looking between the man and Ranma. "He didn't hurt me. He killed the bad cat and bandaged my arm, see?" She said, holding up her arm.

"Wh... what?" The man asked, surprised. He slowly lowered his staff, settling it into a set of hooks on the side of his belt. "Maybe I attacked prematurely. It's just that the last were we had around here did some real damage."

"Werecreature?" Ranma asked, blinking in confusion and incomprehension at the man.

"You don't know what a Werecreature is?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow.

Not really." Ranma said, shrugging his shoulders. "If you're talking about what I look like, it was kind of the result of this curse I picked up."

"Ah. I see." The man said, dropping his guard almost completely. "Well, if what Teev here says is true then Please come to our cabin with us. I'll explain what I was talking about and we can have some supper. I'm Veecer, by the way." (1)

The man walked away from Ranma and into the woods, the girl quickly running after. Ranma shrugged, picking up his pack and following behind.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, The man lead the two followers to a house constructed of roughly cut logs, surrounded by trees. Opening the door, the girl ran in and he followed. Ranma just shrugged again, walking inside.

"Teev, could you make some tea?" Veecer asked, hanging a light jacket that he had been wearing up on a coat rack.

"Yes daddy." The girl said, running off into another room while Veecer sat down, beckoning for Ranma to do the same. Hesitantly, Ranma took a seat, noting that there was a very large, and more importantly, silver, sword hanging above the fireplace.

Veecer noticed Ranma staring at the sword. "Is there something wrong?" He asked, looking strangely at Ranma.

"Well, I've kinda got this problem with silver..." Ranma explained, still shooting nervous glances at the weapon over the fire place.

"I thought your current form was some sort of curse?" Veecer said, narrowing his eyes. "Only werecreatures have a problem with silver..."

"Yeh. This is a Jusenkyo curse.. well, part of it anyways. I accidentally fell into two of the Jusenkyo springs one after another and ended up like this."

Veecer blinked. "Jusenkyo? You mean that valley in the territory of the amazons? You're lucky to be alive and unmarried." He chuckled.

Ranma chuckled nervously. "Well, I was kinda in my cursed form when I met them so I didn't have to worry about getting married..." He explained, just as Teev came walking into the living room, carrying a pot of tea, some sugar and some milk. As luck would have it, she tripped, spilling the cold milk container off of one side of the tray and onto Ranma. Ranma let off a small annoyed hiss as he felt the cold liquid touch his fur, and then felt the tingle of the curse activating.

Veecer blinked a couple of times. "I see what you mean." He said, dryly.

The little girl just stared at Ranma in wide eyed wonder and poked one of her fur covered breasts. Ranma's face curled up into a strange expression and she asked, "Could you please not do that?"

The girl eaped and backed away a bit, especially since Ranma now looked kind of like the tiger who had attacked her, only with more reddish fur.

After Ranma had gotten some hot water, as well as a few minutes of silent tea drinking, Ranma finally asked something. "Why are you so hostile to these werecreatures anyways?"

Veecer sighed. "It's a long story. About ten years ago, a group of Werewolves came through here, looking for a Werecheetah. Apparently, they were looking for the last of the werecheetah clan, since they were trying to kill them all. They thought that there was a werecheetah here because they saw a man with a Jusenkyo curse turn into a cat, and they thought we were hiding it. They threatened to murder my wife unless we told where it was, and of course, we had no idea." Here, his voice began to crack. "The bastards just sliced her head off, right in front of me." He said, his eyes filled with hatred. "I don't have anything against were in general, but after that incident I've been weary of them, and I plan to kill the next werewolf I see."

Ranma nodded in agreement. If that kind of thing had happened to him, he would probably react the same way. "So I look like one of these werecreatures?" He asked, quizzically. Who knows. He just may be one.

"Well, yes." Veecer explained, looking Ranma over. "Your face is a bit more human than the werewolves, and your features are like a cat instead of a wolf, but you look almost exactly like them. Not to mention that you seem REALLY nervous of my silverblade."

Ranma shivered. The thing was giving him the creeps, and he didn't know why. Yeh, the burns hurt, but it just seemed... evil, like it wanted to suck the life out of him. Maybe that was his instinct talking, but it was really disconcerting. Yanking his attention from the really big silver sword, he asked another question. "Do you know anything about Werecreatures other than that they hate silver?"

Veecer scratched his chin. "Let's see. I know they can change into normal looking people, but they're usually kinda short... they can also turn into full forms of what they are, like a full wolf or something. I think they have really fast healing, too, but I'm not sure."

"Thanks." Ranma said, as Teev walked out of the kitchen with some food, having retreated there when her father started telling his story about the werewolves.

After the meal, which was very good, Ranma got up and walked to the door, picking his pack up from where he had deposited it earlier and putting it on his back.

"Ranma?" Teev asked, looking at him curiously. "Where're you going?"

"Well, I've gotta head out and find somewhere to camp for the night." Ranma explained, gesturing around the small house, which only had room for Teev and her father. "I'm probably gunna head out in the morning."

"Aw!" The young girl complained, looking down. "I thought you'd stay."

"Nope." Ranma said, hiking his pack up onto his shoulders. "I'm headin to Japan."

Just as Ranma was about to leave, again, he was interrupted. "Ranma, wait for a second, please."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, turning around.

"Take this." Veecer said, pressing a small pile of bills into his hand. "It isn't much, but it should get you to Japan and It's not nearly enough reward for saving my daughter's life."

"Uh... Thanks." Ranma said awkwardly, pocketing the money. He really couldn't object, as Veecer had turned around and immediately walked deeper into the house. Excellent way to keep people from refusing your gifts, that. Shrugging, he turned and finally made it through the door. Heading through the forest again, this time with a destination in mind, Ranma wondered what kind of weirdness was going to happen next.

END.

Note.

(1)Can you figure out the gimmick I used for Teev and Veecer yet? I'll give you a hint. They're house hold appliances.

If you don't get the names yet, look below.

Key for the names. Delete the Es and then capitalize the letters.

Chapter 6. Problems fitting in.

Ranma walked through the slowly thinning forest, on a path that he hoped would lead him to a city. He had been in the more uncivilized portions of China for the last little while, having left Veecer's home about three days earlier, and was actually anxious to see people and a city again, even if it was in China and he couldn't speak much of the language. As the small forest path hardened into a paved road, Ranma smiled. He had to be near a city now, and hopefully, a port. Fingering the pocket of his white Gi, where the money from Veecer was safely hidden, he wondered why the man had given it to him. True, he had saved his daughter, but he was only doing what was right. Ranma shrugged that off as he began noticing that the outskirts of a town were approaching, and he increased his pace.

Later that day, as Ranma walked through the small Chinese port city, he noticed many people looking at him strangely. He wondered why this was at first, before he realized that he looked kind of… different… from everyone else. Thinking that he should probably see about getting passage on a boat back to Japan, as for some reason he instinctively flinched from the prospect of swimming back, Ranma walked to the docks and looked for a likely, and cheap, prospect for transport. Seeing a slightly beaten up supply freighter on the end of a short and slightly rotten dock, Ranma walked up to it and boarded, knocking on the door to the captain's cabin.

A Chinese man came to the door, and his eyes widened. He began chattering in Chinese before Ranma managed to say the only words of the language that he knew well. (I do not speak Chinese.) Ranma pronounced, deliberately, making sure that he didn't make any mistakes in inflection. (Do You speak Japanese?)

The old Chinese man looked surprised for a moment but then shook it off. "Yes, I speak passable Japanese, son. So what can I do for you?" He asked, still looking at Ranma strangely.

"Well, I kinda need passage to Japan." Ranma explained, "And I was looking for a cheap trip over."

"Ah…" The old man said, scratching his chin. "I suppose I can provide that for you, How about you help load and unload supplies for us, and We'll take you across?" He said, his Chinese accent making it slightly hard to understand.

Ranma blinked. He didn't even have to pay for his trip? That was a bonus that he wasn't expecting. "All right, that sounds great. Thanks!" He said, nodding.

"Oh, and to indulge an old man's curiosity, what are you?" The old sailor asked, bluntly.

Ranma blushed slightly. "Um… I think I'm half cat or something." He responded, shrugging.

"All right. Anything we need to know about you?" The old man said.

"Well, I have this problem with silver, so I can't carry it. Oh right, I've got this water triggered curse." Ranma said, looking nervously at the water over the side of the boat.

"Ah, Jusenkyo. No problem sunny. We start loading supplies in three hours so go and entertain yourself until we leave."

"Ranma nodded, briefly wondering how the old man knew of Jusenkyo before walking off.

The captain of the freighter looked after the black furred cat boy as he walked off. He had been on the sea for a LONG time, and had seen many things. Still, something like a hybrid of a man and a cat was rather unusual. He wondered if that was the boy's normal or cursed form. He had transported those wolf men a few years back… Shrugging it off, the old man headed back into his cabin and took out his ledger, crossing off the name of one of the over paid porters and putting Ranma's name in it's place, with a salary of 0$. He suspected that the seemingly small and skinny boy was hiding some serious power, and he would be useful on this trip.

As Ranma wandered the town, he felt the bulge of the money that he had gotten still present in his Gi top. He hadn't really needed it after all, but what could he use it for? He had already had lunch that day out of his backpack, and he didn't need any more supplies. He was just deciding that he would save it for a rainy day when something caught his eye. It was a clothing store. Looking down at the white training Gi, which was almost completely ripped to shreds, Ranma decided that he needed more clothes.

After Ranma had walked into the store, he got some rather long looks from the sails people before one came over to him. (Can I help you?) She asked, In Chinese. Ranma repeated the only Chinese phrase he knew, and the woman looked over to another woman who was sitting at the cash register. After the two had exchanged rapid fire words in Chinese, the second one walked up to Ranma. "I understand you no speak Chinese, yes?" She asked, cheerfully.

"Yeh, that's right. I was wonderin if I could get some clothes here. The stuff I got ain't holdin up so well." Ranma explained, gesturing at his Gi.

"Ah, I see." The woman said, looking Ranma over. "Customer have to take strange costume off before we start, though." She continued, pointing at Ranma.

"Costume?" Ranma asked, looking to where she was pointing only to see his own furry arms and legs. "Um… this ain't a costume. I can't take it off." He explained, his blush almost visible through his black fur.

"What you mean it no costume?" The woman asked, reaching out and pulling on one of Ranma's ears. To her surprise, he let out a soft hiss when she pulled too hard.

"Yow! I said it wasn't a costume!" Ranma said, rubbing his ear.

"Oh, that very strange one…" The woman said, her eyes opened in shock. "I have to ask about this."

The woman then walked off, talking rapidly to the others in the store for a moment. Much to Ranma's annoyance, each of them had to verify the reality of his appearance, and his much abused ear was screaming in protest by the end of it. After even more consultation, the women began to hustle about, grabbing some articles of clothing. Five minutes later, after one had ran to the back room with a pair of black pants and a few pairs of boxers, The women presented the clothes to Ranma.

"Try these." The one who could speak Japanese said, pointing at them.

Shrugging, Ranma walked to the dressing room at the back of the store, putting on some of the clothes that he had been given. Looking up at the mirror on the front of the stall, he was pleasantly surprised with what he found. He was wearing a red silk shirt that looked perfectly normal except for the fact that the arms were slightly wider than normal so that they didn't irritate the fur on his arms, his pants were black, with a draw string at the waist and the bottom of both legs. They, like the shirt, had baggy legs to avoid irritating his fur. The strangest thing about the clothes was the tail hole that the women had apparently sown into the back of the pants and boxers, so that his tail wouldn't be squished inside the things. There were even loops on the top of the pair of pants for him to slip it into, probably originally for a belt, if he wanted it out of the way.

Walking out of the dressing room, Ranma smiled gratefully at the woman who spoke Japanese. "Thanks. These fit great!" He said, turning around a few times.

"No problem. Glad you like. They kind of expensive, so we only have one for you, yes?" She asked, uncertainly. The modifications had increased the price of the garments a rather large amount, and she hoped that he would still want them.

"Is this enough?" Ranma said, taking about half of the money from his pocket and offering it to the girl.

She smiled and pocketed it. "Yes, that enough. Have nice day, yes?"

"Yeh, I will. thanks." Ranma said, as he left the shop, wearing his new clothes. He had to admit that they were a lot more comfortable than the white training Gi that he had been wearing for the past year or so, especially since the thing had never been washed.

A little while later, Ranma was on the docks and carrying some rather large crates. The old captain of the slightly beaten up freighter smiled as he watched the people load up his ship. He had been right about the strange catboy's strength, and the loading was going a bit faster than usual. After all of the supplies had been loaded aboard, the captain got all of his crew from their shore leave and the ship set off on it's supply run to Japan.

A couple of days later, Ranma brushed his hands off against his black pants as he set the last of the cargo containers down on the docks. Walking up to the old captain, he asked, "Is that everything? I've gotta get goin to Tokyo."

The old man smiled. "I suppose so. Good luck in whatever you're doing, lad." He said, as Ranma turned and left.

Later that day, Ranma was annoyed. The Chinese, who were a little bit desensitized to weirdness due to the Bayankala mountain range dwellers, had mostly left him alone, but the standard Japanese attitude towards differences was starting to get on his nerves. He had been stared at by several people, some even coming up to see if his ears and tail were real. Most of them just thought that he looked kind of cool, but he saw a few scared people and even one or two angry ones. He couldn't figure out why they were angry, but it was setting him on edge. As he walked through the small port city that he found himself in, Ranma heard someone clearing their throat behind him.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, turning, before his eyes widened in disbelief. What stood before him was a magical girl straight out of the Manga. She had long, flowing brown hair and was wearing a rather overly cute costume that consisted of a just about knee length red skirt, an orangish red breast plate and what appeared to be a one piece white swimsuit underneath it. She was posing with a rather large sword held in front of her body, staring at Ranma as if she wanted to strike him down. "What the heck is goin on here?" Ranma asked, blinking at the girl.

"I am Bishoujo Hime Megumi, and I shall destroy you demon!" The girl said, her pose changing to a one footed crane stance with the sword held up in the air. This made her look kind of like a flag pole.

"Demon? Hey, I'm not a demon!" Ranma said, indignantly.

"You sure look like one!" The girl shot back, falling into an attack stance.

"Well, maybe, but I ain't done nothin wrong. I just got here and I'm only passin through, okay?" Ranma pleaded.

The girl pondered for a second. The Demon did have a point. It wasn't bothering anyone, and it seemed to be on a path to take it out of the city, but it WAS a demon. One of the foes that her family had been sworn to defeat a long time ago. She could feel the magic that flowed off of it, and some of it definitely felt dark. Making her decision, Megumi pointed her sword and charged.

"Hey!" Ranma yelped, dodging the girl's attacks. "I ain't a demon and I ain't doin anything!" He complained, ducking under a sword slash that would have taken his head off.

"I know you're a demon! I can sense dark power from you and I must destroy all of the hell spawn that enter our world, for the Honour of my family!" Megumi yelled, swinging her sword in a long and complex dance that actually succeeded in nicking Ranma once. Ranma yelped in pain but felt confident that the wound would close up like most of his others had. Strangely, it stayed open. He looked at her sword. It wasn't silver, but it seemed to radiate some sort of power, as if it was imbued with Chi, or more likely in this case, Magic.

Ducking another swing, Ranma lashed out with his hand and hit the base of the blade, knocking it out of the magical girl's grasp. All he needed was her angry at him for destroying some sort of family relic if he slashed it with his claws.

The girl stumbled back for a moment, before growling angrily at Ranma. "Fine. If you want to play like that… SOUL SPEAR SHOT!" She yelled, throwing her hands out wide. Ranma's eyes widened as three bright white spears materialized around the girl, shooting towards him. He tried to dodge, but it was useless. The spears found him and impaled him… causing no pain.

"Wh… what the?" Ranma said, looking in astonishment at the part of his chest that one of the spears had passed through.

Megumi gaped. He had managed to withstand a soul spear? It was supposed to destroy all of the darkness within a demon's heart, killing it instantly. The only way someone could survive the attack was if they were either possessed, in which case the demon would be exorcised, or if they were normal people, but she could FEAL some sort of energy coming off of Ranma that made her think of death. Death magic couldn't possibly be wielded by a force of good, could it? While Megumi was arguing with herself, Ranma used the distraction to come in with several rapid blows to her body that knocked her down. Many of his reservations about fighting girls had been taken away by his small time in the Amazon village, and she HAD tried to lop off his head, after all.

Megumi gasped as the Demon moved more quickly than any she had ever fought, Landing several hard blows to her body. She knew that if she hadn't been in her magically enhanced state, she would probably have been knocked out by the carefully gauged hits. Falling to the ground, she struggled to get back up. Her struggle was eventually proven futile, as she ended up barely supporting herself on one knee. She knew what was coming next. She had seen it happen once, and it terrified her. The demon was going to rip her throat out, or suck out her soul or even just crush her life essence as she had seen done once before. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end, when she heard footsteps. Looking up, Megumi was surprised to see the creature walking away from her. "Wh… what?" She stuttered, looking after it.

"I'd offer ya medical attention, but ya almost killed me so I don't think I will." Ranma said, tossing the words over his shoulder. "I don't think I hurt ya too bad anyways."

Megumi looked on in astonishment as what she had thought was a demon like the many others she had fought in her time as a devil hunter walked away, calmly and not looking back. As her fatigue caught up with her, she let her magic shields and armour fall, revealing a teenaged girl in a girls' school uniform, with a long skirt. Digging around in her purse, she came up with a cell phone. She quickly typed a series of numbers and put it to her ear. "Grandmother? It's meg. I need some help over on main street. I'm pretty badly banged up. Thanks. Goodbye." She said, hanging up.

About an hour later, Megumi was sitting in an elaborately furnished library. Her grandmother, an older woman with short grey hair, sat across from her. "So you say this cat demon just left you alone after it defeated you?" The old woman asked, her eyebrows raising. This was very unusual.

"Yes, Ma'am." Meg said, uneasily. She was always afraid of disappointing her grandmother, the person who had taken her and her sisters in after her mother died many years ago, and she felt very bad for not winning against this demon. "It was just too fast, and my soul spear shot didn't work on it at all."

The old woman looked deep in thought for a moment. "You told me it radiated some death magic, but no other evil energies?" She asked, looking curiously at meg.

"Yes, ma'am. No other dark powers. It did have an energy drain spell somewhere, but it didn't seem very dark." Meg reported.

"I see. Well, how about you go and track down this strange cat demon. Don't instantly try to kill it this time, just see what you can find out about it. Maybe it could even help us." Meg's grandmother ordered.

"Get help from a demon?" Meg asked, her eyes widening in astonishment.

"Not ALL supernatural entities are Demonic, child. Some are even demonic but wish to Help Humanity rather than destroy it. We have only had contact with Demons so far, so I felt that I did not need to teach you about the other types of spirit and magic based creatures. Maybe this will be a learning experience for you." The old woman explained.

Meg nodded uncertainly, before standing from her seat. "May I leave now, then?" She asked, looking questioningly at her grandmother.

"Yes. I'll have your sisters take over your duties while you're gone. You have unlimited time, but I WILL contact you if we need you so keep your cell phone handy." The woman said, smiling at meg. "Just think of this as a vacation."

"Thank you grandmother." Meg said uncertainly, before leaving the room.

The old woman sat back in her chair and sighed. That girl had SO much to learn… and maybe the strange new creature would help teach her. Not to mention that if it were as humanoid as she thought, she could get some great grandchildren out of this trip. The old woman got a twinkle in her eye that many readers of the original Ranma manga would have recognised as occupying the eyes of one Nodoka Saotome on many an occasion.

END.

Notes on Megumi.

She's an OC which I created. Any similarities to people, living, dead or visiting from another dimension, (Sorry materia blade,) is purely coincidental. More background about her will be provided as the story progresses, and she is one of the more central characters.

Oh, and Her soul speer is NOT a rip off of Azusa's from DHY. 


	3. The Coin, Tails

Ah, this fic... I still like it, and like Uncultured Cat Person, have plans for it in future. This should not discourage anyone who wishes to use the concept, or even the text, for that matter, as I have plans for a great many things, and very few of them come to fruition. If, however, any of my vault fics DO happen to go back on my active list they'll be removed from here to reduce confusion.

Anyways, on to the fic itself. I have an extensive plot line laid out if whoever decides to continue the fic wishes to see it, other than that, just ensure that you E-mail me to tell me that you're starting it so that I can take the vault copy down, and so that I can read what I hope will be a good continuation.

Without further authorly Ramblings, here's the fic, and an indication that, despite appearances, I am NOT dead, just very busy.

The coin: Tails.

Written by Weebee.

Summery. This is deliberately vague, but Ranma gets sucked into a dark future, in which humanity is enslaved by other, alien races. This is a crossover, but I'm not telling you with what, and anyone who guessed it will have to be far too much of a geek, and is threatening my position. Even so, I welcome any guesses.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma, or the other universe used in this fanfic. As of chapter 2, I'll disclaim that one better.

Chapter 1, Transfer.

Ranma dodged a blow from a wooden staff, the object slamming into the ground next to him with a large puff of dirt. Jumping to the side, he avoided a slashing sword and a pair of Bonbori maces as they flew over his head, pivoting to see two Amazon warriors, Shampoo and Mousse, standing steadily in front of him.

Regaining his feet, Ranma caught his breath from the sudden surprise attack that the amazons had executed upon him, and managed to ask a question. "Why the heck are ya doin this?" He asked, before diving to the left to avoid an ancient woman on the tip of a staff.

"I sorry Ranma, it village law." Shampoo said, sounding truly regretful.

"But I'd do it even if it wasn't!" Mousse smiled, as he threw his arms forward, two chains immerging from the sleeves. Ranma tried to dodge them, but Cologne came in from above, and her staff stopped his upward jump cold. With a loud crack, Ranma's skull met the wooden handle of a staff, and he became disoriented for just long enough for the chains to rap around him.

"Now, hold him!" Cologne cried, as she recovered from her staff strike and withdrew an old and tattered scroll from her baggy green robes.

"Ol' ghoul, you still haven't told me why yer doin this." Ranma growled, as he struggled to get free of Mousse's chains. The amazons knew that he would succeed soon, but Cologne decided to respond anyways. After all, her best student in years deserved that, at least.

"I am sorry, Ranma, but the village has declared that since Shampoo cannot win you as a husband, and you are too powerful to run free, we must dispose of you." She stopped Ranma, as he began to look angry and slightly afraid, knowing that if he was desperate enough he would most likely slip from the chains and get away. "Do not worry, Ranma. You will not be killed, or really harmed in any way." She continued, as she began to read from the scroll. Her words came out in a soft cadence that almost seemed hypnotic, the ancient Chinese words of power seeming to gather a force in the air around the elder. Her final word, however, was in Japanese and Ranma could recognize it very well. "Banishment!"

As Cologne uttered the final word, that must be spoken in the victim's own language, she shed a single tear, fully knowing that Ranma would never return again. The pigtailed boy had disappeared in a flash of light shortly after she had said the last of the words of power, and she knew that the spell she had cast had sent him so far away, that it was impossible to get back. Then again, Ranma was rather prone to performing the impossible. With that last thought, the elder turned to guide her crying great granddaughter and the smiling idiot duck back to the restaurant.

Meanwhile, several hundred years in the future, an old man mixed a bubbling pot of various ingredients, while humming a jazz tune under his breath. This man was Joseph Sisko, a man in his early eighties, and even with the dark times that had overtaken the earth in the last hundred years, even before he was born, he remained cheerful, doing what he loved. As he finished stirring the pot of Traditional Kajen food, he heard a loud crashing noise that came from the door to the alley behind his restaurant. Placing the stirring spoon on the table next to the stove, he grabbed a small stunner weapon that he kept next to the door, for rowdy customers, and began walking to the back door.

Opening the door, Joe saw a rather strange site. In the alley, a seventeen year old boy lay, his body sprawled awkwardly across the Restaurant's back step. "What in the world?" Joe asked, as he knelt down beside the boy's form, noticing the strange, soft clothes he had been wearing. No terran would ever have enough money to by clothing like this, but Joe couldn't detect any alien features with a cursory evaluation. Shrugging, he decided to do the right thing, and tried to lift the young man to carry him into the kitchen. That idea quickly showed itself as a bust, as his back screamed in protest the second he tried to lift the weight. He involuntarily let out a groan of pain, and the boy seemed to hear it as he opened his eyes.

"Are you all right?" The boy asked, however it was in a language that Joe had never heard before, and couldn't understand.

"What's that? I can't understand you." Joe said, slowly straightening out to a standing position with a few more groans of pain.

The boy seemed to realize something, and he began to speak again. "You speak Engrish, right?" He asked, in a strangely accented voice.

"I speak Terran, boy, but that doesn't matter at the moment." Joe said, as he noticed that the sky was getting dark. "You really shouldn't be out here after it gets dark, the overseers'll get ya."

The boy blinked in incomprehension. "Ovaseas?" he asked, confused.

Joe sighed. "Never mind, just come in here." He said, as he gestured towards the inside of his restaurant. He rationalized this as not wanting to deal with the overseer force anymore than he had to, and besides, the kid was probably insane or something, not knowing what an overseer was.

The boy quickly nodded, although he still looked confused, as he entered what appeared to be the kitchen of a restaurant. Sniffing, he could smell something really good, but couldn't identify it. Walking over to the pot, he eyed it curiously.

"You want some?" Joe asked, curiously.

The boy looked at him, and asked, "Is okay?"

Joe shrugged. "Yah, sure. I made too much for myself anyways… but while I'm feeding you, can I ask who you are, son?"

"I Ranma." The boy responded, clumsily. It was obvious to Joe that he had trouble forming any sentences in Terran, and kept his sentences as short as possible.

"Well, I'm Joe Sisko, owner of Sisko's Creole Kitchen." Joe said, with a crooked grin. "Nice ta meat you." Sisko was usually a pretty friendly person, he really had to be in his line of work, and he had met and helped out people wandering on the street before, but this boy seemed different. Deciding to indulge his curiosity, he said, "How about I get you a bowl of that," pointing at the pot, "and we can sit in the front room and talk?"

"Hey, thanks." Ranma said, nodding slightly. A few minutes later, he walked into the front room of the Restaurant, looking around in amazement. It didn't look like any eating establishment he'd ever seen, with the stuffed alligator hanging from the roof and the old baseball photos scattered around the room, and the place seemed somehow run down in a way he couldn't quite understand.

"You gunna keep gawkin, or do you want some food?" Joe asked, as he set a bowl down at a table. Ranma descended on the food with typical Saotome gusto, and Joe smiled. "Boy, have you been starved for a week or something?"

"No, food is just good." Ranma said, between mouthfuls. Sisko just laughed, as he sat down across from Ranma with his own bowl.

HR

Later that night, Ranma sat on the edge of a beaten up bed, gazing into the darkness of the room around him. He had quickly figured out that Cologne's spell had sent him away from Tokyo, judging from the one word he could understand of it, and when Sisko had asked him if he had a place to go back to, he had been forced to say no. As a result, Sisko had offered him the room in which he was sitting now, which had once been used by the Restaurant's single waiter before he had been forced to leave. With a sigh, he let himself fall back on the bed, which was a lot more comfortable than his old Futon, anyhow. Now if he could only get past the language barrier between himself and Mr. Sisko, and presumably everyone else wherever he was, maybe he could do something, but for now all he could do was get some sleep.

HR

The next day, Ranma woke to the smell of something cooking in the kitchen, which was right next to the room where he had slept. Getting out of bed, he left his room to see Sisko cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"Hello Ranma, you're up I see." The man said, seeing the newest guest who had shown up at his doorstep the night before. "You want to help this old man get ready for the morning crowd?"

Ranma shrugged. Sisko had helped him out the night before, and he had worked at a restaurant before. Nodding, he walked out front and began to take chairs off of the tops of tables, as the first few morning customers came trickling in. As Ranma looked over them, he began to notice a pattern. Sisko had worn faded, old seeming clothes, but Ranma had assumed they were for work in the kitchen. This morning, however, He was noticing that everyone wore the same, or similar clothing, even the women wearing a similar shirt and slacks combination. Dismissing this, he began to take orders and bring them back to Sisko, much to the older man's surprise.

"So, you're volunteering as my new waiter?" Sisko asked, as Ranma came in and began listing off customers meals in broken English.

"I pay you back for helping me last night." Ranma explained, as he excepted a plate.

"Ah, I see." Sisko said, thoughtfully. "Well, I appreciate it. These old bones can't go as well as they used to." He said, with a slight chuckle. Suddenly, as if to prove his point, the chuckle turned into a hacking cough that doubled him over.

"Sisko San, Are you all right?" Ranma asked, accidentally reverting to Japanese, as he moved to help the older man. As he did so, he felt for his life energy, as Dr. Tofu had taught him to do on one occasion, after the incident with Saffron, when Ranma asked him about first aid. To his surprise, Sisko's life energy was almost non-existent. For the first time, Ranma began to realize the older man was very sick.

Sisko recovered from his coughing fit and straightened up, noticing that Ranma was staring at him concernedly. "I'm fine, just a little coughing fit. Let's get back to work, boy!" He said, jovially, gesturing for Ranma to start taking orders again. Ranma nodded, knowing that, like himself, the older man wanted to take care of himself as much as possible, and refused to admit his own weakness. If nothing else, he could empathize with that.

HR

The next few weeks flew by quickly, as Ranma continued to work at Joe Sisko's Restaurant. His English, by necessity, began to get better as he worked with the customers, and he kept a careful eye on the old man, trying to not be obvious about it. Of course, being Ranma, he failed miserably… but as long as Ranma didn't say anything about it, Sisko didn't mind. Sometime on the third day, Ranma's curse was revealed, but Sisko had just muttered something about suspecting that Ranma wasn't a terran and left it at that.

Ranma, on his part, now alternated days as a waitress, at Sisko's request, in order to draw in more customers. He may not have liked it, but he had worked as a waitress before, and Sisko was right, she definitely did draw in the crowds.

It was on one of Ranma's waitress days when it happened. The day had started out well enough, business was good and Joe hadn't shown any signs of illness, but all that was about to change, as the doors to the place opened and everyone inside fell silent.

Ranma looked up from a table, who's occupants had turned pale, to see a large man standing in the doorway to the place. His features looked somewhat off, but there had been a few people in here who didn't look human, and after being surprised the first time a blue skinned man walked in, she had been informed of the existence of Extra-Terrestrial life. She was surprised, but not as much as the average person. She WAS from Nerima, after all. Shrugging, she walked up to the overly-tall, broad shouldered man in the doorway. "Can I help you?" She asked, acting like the cute girl who, to all outward appearances, she was.

The man's eyes roamed Ranma's body in the way she had associated with perverted intent, and he opened his mouth. "Oh, you can help me all right little Terran. Quite lovely, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, one of her hands twitching to slug this guy in the face. Of course, that wasn't good for business, so she restrained herself.

"You heard me, girl." The man said, as he grabbed Ranma by the arm. "When I heard the Terran workers talking I never expected this, now how about you come with me."

"You let her go!" Sisko barked, from the door to the kitchen. He held a large wooden stirring spoon in his hand, and was waving it at the large man.

"Oh, old man. Who's she to you, anyways?" The large man said, walking past Ranma to get to Sisko. "She's just a waitress, right?"

"She's my waitress, and I need her here." Sisko said, sounding gruff.

The large man laughed. "You've got courage, old man… Truly, you were born of the wrong species." Then, he shook his head. "Sadly, I must punish you for your insolence."

Sisko lunged at the large man, before he brought his hand up in a meaty fist, hammering the older man across the side of the head.

"Sisko san!" Ranma yelled, running over to the man who had taken her in several weeks ago. When she reached him, she felt for his Chi only to get no response. "You… killed him?"

The tall man snorted. "He died like a warrior, something that you Terrans really shouldn't expect."

Ranma growled. "You killed him because he was protectin me? You…" At that moment, she launched herself forward, and crashed into the large man with her fist extended, Energy filling it. This was a blow that could harm Ryoga Hibiki, and it was planted straight against the man's ridged forehead. There was a sickening crack, and the tall man slumped to the ground, Ranma panting in anger, and standing over his body.

"Wh… what did I just do?" Ranma asked, as she looked down, her anger turning to horror. She turned, only to see one of the Restaurant's customers behind her, holding her shoulder.

"I suggest you run." The man said, with a small half smile on his face. "We'll keep the Overseers tied up here as long as we can."

Ranma continued to stand there, uncertain for a moment, before the man spoke more sharply. "Go!" Unable to think of anything else, she ran out of the door, and into the unfamiliar streets.

END.

So, who knows what series this is crossed with? Okay, so I'm not so good at keeping things secret… but anyhow. Before you ask, Yes, this is perfectly cannon for that series, you just have to think… in reverse, I suppose is the best way to phrase it. Second, Sisko is NOT a new character… even if he does only appear in three episodes.

Chapter 2, Survival.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, Deep space nine or Ranma ½.

Note: Yes, the other series is star trek deep space nine. For details on what components of the series I'm using, see "Home front." And "Crossover."

PS: There are a lot more nerds here than I expected! As for Ranma and Linux… Nah, can't see Ranma knowing a root directory from a TAR ball.

Ranma Ran. Really, that's all he had been doing for a week now, running. He wasn't really sure if it was from himself, or the allies of the man with the strangely ridged forehead and long bushy hair. Unfortunately, no matter how far and fast he ran, he couldn't escape the gnawing feeling in his chest that told him that he had killed, and this time his victim wasn't coming back to life. Finally, he stopped his travel for the day, slowing down in a dim and dreary back street. Then again, the main streets here weren't much better, and he occasionally wondered what had happened to turn this place into such a dump, however that didn't matter at the moment. All that did was the fact that he had been running full out for the entire day, and he wanted to go to sleep, even if it was on cold cement.

Flopping down in the back alley, he curled up in a ball and tried to ignore the hunger he felt. The last time he had eaten was two days ago, when he had put his father's foraging skills to use in a rather odd setting and caught a rather fat Rat. As he began to fall asleep, he had to find it funny that just a month before, Cologne had promised that what she had done would not hurt him. With that rather bitter thought on his mind, he fell asleep.

HR

"I told you, unhand me!" Came an indignant voice, floating down the alley where Ranma slept. Ranma's eye cracked open to see two of the men with ridged foreheads, dragging a third man down towards him.

"And why should we, you Targ bait?" One of the men snarled, angrily. "You were helping terran rebels."

"But please, I swear I wasn't. Just call commander Garak aboard Terok Nore, he'll vouch for me, I wasn't doing anything!" The man shouted, as he realized that his two escorts were dragging him down this alley to shoot him. In reality, he was pretty sure that Elim Garak would laugh in his face if he tried to appeal to him, but at least it would buy him some time.

"Dukat, you truly are pathetic, aren't you?" One of the two other men said, as he pushed the now identified Dukat to the ground.

"Please, no…" Dukat cried, truly sounding terrified as the barrel of a rather mean looking weapon was leveled at his back. That, was when Ranma decided to act.

"Hey, you ugly bastards." Ranma said, as he stood from his laying position.

The two large men turned towards Ranma, while Dukat still lay on the ground, cowering. "Oh, it's a little terran boy." One of them snorted, as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Leave us now, and I will not kill you!"

"Sorry, but I can't do that." Ranma responded, gesturing to Dukat's huddled form. "I gotta protect the weak, 'n it looks like you're pickin on a weak person to me."

"Did you hear that, Vor? He wants to protect the weak?" One of the two men said, snorting.

"Quite the young warrior we have here, Mentok." Vor said, as he unsheathed a short, and wicked looking blade from a sheath on the shoulder of his bulky armor. "Well, let no one say that Vor, son of Ki'tang refused a challenge!" With that, Vor lunged at Ranma, the short sword lashing out to cut the younger man across the chest.

Normally, Ranma would be able to deal with the likes of Vor easily, however he was tired from his day's exertions, not to mention hungry due to lack of proper nourishment, and he had a hard time dealing with the older man. Add to that the fact that his opponent seemed unnaturally strong, and this fight was looking far too even for Ranma's liking.

Dodging a second clumsy swing of the short sword, Ranma jumped into the air and hit Vor across the side of the face with a high kick that sent him staggering back.

Vor laughed, as he regained his feet and wiped a small amount of blood from a cut on his cheek. "Well, you are a strong one, but…" In the middle of his posturing, Ranma had used the distraction to sneak a kick in under his guard, knock the wind out of him, and hit the back of his neck with a knife hand chop. This resulted in Vor ending up on the ground, unconscious.

Mentok laughed as he looked at his comrade. "To be bested in battle by a Terran, truly there is no more humiliating fate for a klingon warrior." He said, as he pulled out a small weapon, similar to the one he had held to Dukat's back shortly before. Firing, The weapon emitted a red bolt of energy that Ranma barely dodged, having seen the Klingon telegraphing his shot a full second before he had fired. As Mentok was sighting on Ranma for a second shot, there was a flash of red light from behind him, and he fell to the ground.

"What?" Ranma asked, looking in bewilderment at Dukat, who was now standing with Vor's discarded weapon in his hands.

"Thank you, young man." Dukat said, with a smile on his face that, for some reason, Ranma compared to a snake. Then again, Dukat did have grey, scaly skin and very reptilian features, but that was beside the point.

"Erm… no problem… Dukat?" Ranma asked, unsure of the name.

"That is my name." Dukat responded, lowering his weapon. "May I ask yours?"

"I'm Ranma." Ranma responded, wondering why this perfectly friendly seeming man was putting him on edge for some reason.

"Well, we should really get ourselves away from here before those klingon' reinforcements arrive." Dukat said, holstering Vor's disruptor on the side of his belt.

"Um, sure." Ranma said, still at a loss for what to do with himself after the Sisko incident, and following Dukat's instructions.

HR

Several hours later, Ranma found himself sitting across from Dukat in a small room, a plate of some strange food sitting on the table in front of him. It had taken some doing to sneak into the Overseer base, however using his father's forbidden techniques, with a silent apology to the old man, he had managed it. "…what is it?" Ranma asked, poking at the plate of food experimentally.

"It's Cardassian food." Dukat explained, eating his own helping ravenously. "It's not terran fair, but you can eat it and it is the least I can do for your assistance today."

"Yeah, that reminds me, why were those guys trying to kill you?" Ranma asked, curiously.

Dukat sighed. "They found out." He said, sourly. "I've been…associating with a Terran woman near here, and they believed that I was attempting to help some Terran resistance that's sprung up in the Bajor sector. I am a loyal officer of Cardassia, and if it weren't for your assistance this morning I would have put you to death for killing Vor."

Ranma shifted apprehensively, hearing that the man across from him was tempted to shoot him, until something clicked. "Whada you mean, killing Vor?"

Dukat looked confused. "You mean, you didn't kill Vor?"

"No, I knocked him out. I… don't like killing if I don't have to."

Dukat's face seemed to turn green, and Ranma wondered if that was the man's way of going pale, or if he was going to be sick. "You… you didn't kill Vor. Well this is perfect!" He yelled, as he shot to his feet.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, confused.

"You idiot, if Vor is still alive then he could tell the base commander…" Suddenly, Dukat's words were interrupted by the sound of loud knocking on the door to the room he and Ranma were in. "Oh no, my career and life are ended because of a Terran who doesn't want to kill a Klingon." Dukat said, with a bitter laugh, sinking to the floor.

"C'mon, it can't be that bad." Ranma said, uncertainly.

At that moment, the knocking came again, and then a voice drifted through the door. "Mr. Dukat, are you in there? Gull Dammer wishes to see you!"

"I've… I've got to get out of here!" Dukat said, panicked, as he looked around the room. Ranma was still confused, but by this point he got that there was something seriously wrong here, and he had to get out of the room. The food had refueled his Chi reserves, after all he was a Saotome, and to them the most important thing was food, Not rest, so he walked up to the back wall of the room and tried Ryoga's breaking point on it. Since it was metal, it had fewer breaking points, but when Ranma concentrated more Chi into them to compensate he was surprised by half of the wall blowing out away from him, and incidentally knocking a Klingon guard nearby into another building. Dukat gaped at him for a moment, before his self preservation kicked in and he began to run into the nearby alleys, Ranma following after him.

HR

A few moments later, in the base commander's office, gull Dammer sat in the midst of the Dark room, consoles and screens lining the walls, as he gazed levelly at a rather sheepish looking Cardassian soldier. "And there was no explosive residue at the blast site?" He asked, disbelieving.

"No, sir." The soldier responded, nervously. There was a reason no one liked working in the North America sector, and Dammer was it. "We didn't find anything, and the guard who was standing on that side of Dukat's quarters was knocked out by debris, sir."

"I see." Dammer mumbled, as he turned to one of the computer panels in the room. Tapping some touch pads on the screen, the face of a rather burly klingon appeared. "Commander Kurn?"

"Yes gull Dammer?" Kurn asked, appearing annoyed. He had just been in the middle of, "Combat" and did not like to be disturbed. From behind him, a female Klingon's head poked into the screen, but he pushed her down. "What is it?"

Dammer snorted in disgust, but was careful to mask it from Kurn as he spoke. "We have a new task for you, Kurn. A Terran with the power to overcome a klingon warrior in hand to hand combat, and a traitorous Cardassian officer are currently in the vicinity of this base. I want you to find them."

Kurn snorted. "Whoever that was who was bested by a Terran must truly be pathetic… however I shall enjoy the hunt. Kurn out." With that, the screen in front of the Gull faded out, and he settled back in his chair, satisfied that his problems would be taken care of.

HR

Meanwhile, in the alleys near the base, Ranma ran frantically once again, Dukat by his side this time. "You know, This is entirely your fault." Dukat huffed, as he struggled to keep up with Ranma. The fact that the Terran was out-distancing him annoyed him to no end, since Cardassians usually far outstripped Terrans or similar species in physical ability.

"Well, I'm SO sorry I didn't kill someone in cold blood, for once!" Ranma snapped, angrily. "I've already done enough of that." He muttered, more quietly.

Dukat looked at him curiously, before the two men heard the sound of shouting coming from one end of the alley. As they turned down the other way, they heard another group of people on that side as well.

"We're trapped." Dukat said, looking from one end to the other. Ranma looked around, however all he saw was a small tarp, barely large enough to cover one of them. Then, he got an idea.

HR

Kurn and his troops marched down the dark alley, noticing the form of a humanoid sitting on something near one of the side walls. "Who's there," Kurn barked, as he turned a palm beacon towards the figure.

The Terran girl who was illuminated by the light shrank back, and put her hands out in front of her. "S… stay away from me, please." She said, in a scared voice, as she risked falling off of the Tarp covered box she was using as a chair.

Kurn snorted, and reached for a Padd that contained Details on his two targets. "Our target is Male, and this is a Terran Female, leave her." He said, as he continued through the alley. One of his men looked as if he were going to try his hand at "Sampling" her, however Kurn cuffed him on the back of the head. "We are on a mission!" He barked, and the group marched on. Not for the first time, he wished that scanning devices could be used in the Terran sector. It would be a lot easier to find his quarry if the Terrans hadn't rigged the region with hidden EM generators before they were completely subdued.

As Kurn and his men walked away, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. "Can I please get out from under here now!" Dukat yelled. Thankfully, the Klingons were out of earshot.

Ranma got up, and Dukat threw off the tarp before getting a good look at her. One of the boney ridges above his eyes raised inquisitively as he caught sight of her.

"Don't ask, and don't touch." Ranma snapped back, as the two continued away from the base.

Notes:

All Klingon and Cardassian names are made up. I know there is actually a klingon language, however I don't feel inclined to learn it and don't particularly care what their names may or may not mean. As for Dukat's behavior, I always wondered what he would do if he were a lower level officer, and it appears he has thoroughly botched the works, eh? The real question is, can Ranma trust him as far as I could throw him? More coming soon.


	4. Injured

The next three fic ideas were written out in ONE WEEK, while I was having a sort of reverse writer's block. That was, I had the opportunity and desire to write, but I was getting ideas too quickly to handle them correctly.

Injured, by Weebee.

After Jusendo, Ranma falls victim to an accident that leaves him in a coma, and in hospital. How will the rest of the people of Nerima deal with this? What will Ranma do, once he's woken up, when he finds out just how much he's lost?

Chapter 1, the accident.

Ranma Saotome yawned as he sat in class, having just woken up from a very long nap. He normally didn't sleep for as long as he had just done in class, however the battle against the Phoenix king, Saffron, had been just a few days earlier, and he was still pretty weak from the energy he had expended on the winged being. Although he wouldn't admit it, he had also been plagued with nightmares for the past few nights, Akane laying in his arms, not moving. Shaking the disturbing imagery from his mind, he stood up and stretched.

The classroom was empty, save for a note on the desk in front of Ranma's own, where Akane usually sat. Curiously, he picked the note up and read. "I was going to give you detention for sleeping in class, but you slept through it. Tendo-san has your assigned work. Please remember to lock the window on your way out."

He resisted the urge to smirk as he tossed the note into the trash, noting that Hinako Sensei was getting so used to his actions that she didn't even drain him anymore. He briefly wondered why Akane hadn't tried to wake him, before shaking it off. Grabbing his school bags, he hopped out of the window, holding onto the outside and positioning the glass so that it would fall closed and lock when he let go. Dropping to the ground, he stumbled as his vision blurred for a second. 'Damn, I must be more tired than I thought…'

HR

Ryoga Hibiki wandered through the streets of Nerima, as per usual. This time, however, he was thinking. He, Ranma and the others had just gotten back from China yesterday, and the memories of the battle with Saffron and it's aftermath kept running through his head. The look of absolute grief that Ranma had sported when he had found out that Akane was going to die, the fact that he had somehow managed to face down a foe that Ryoga couldn't defeat to save her, and the scream that he had let off when he had thought that he had finally failed.

"Damn you, Ranma! How can you love her so much and still treat her so cruelly!" He yelled, shaking his fist at the sky. For all of this time, it had been cut and dried. Ranma was the enemy, the evil one who was tormenting Akane and had made his life hell. Now, though, it was so unclear. Ranma had saved Akane, had killed a phoenix, had just plain KILLED for her. Even with the amount of times that Ryoga promised this, he didn't think he could deliver it in reality. How many times had he lost his nerve while he had the opportunity to kill Ranma? Growling in frustration, the lost boy began to run, trying to outdistance the conflicting thoughts that kept chasing their own tails around in his head.

In later years, Ryoga would reflect that if he had only had some time to sort out his thoughts, if Ranma had had some time to rest, things could have turned out so much differently. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and Ryoga rounded a corner at a full speed charge to see a familiar figure, with a black pigtail and red shirt, heading leisurely away from him. Removing his battle umbrella from it's place on his back, the lost boy charged. "Ranma, prepare to die!"

HR

The younger Saotome whirled around as he heard Ryoga's battle cry, seeing the pig cursed boy charging at him, battle umbrella raised. Ryoga hadn't used the umbrella very often since his first few fights, usually only doing it when he was really angry, or really depressed, so Ranma winced at the thought that this was going to be a long fight. Normally, he would love a long and intense blow trading session with his rival, but today all he wanted was to sleep. "Oh man, wadda ya want pig boy?" he asked, as he jumped out of the way of the hurtling red and black projectile.

"You know what I want Ranma, I want you to get pounded and stop hurting Akane!" Ryoga responded, not knowing why he was saying what he was saying. All he really knew was that the fight was, indeed, doing what it was supposed to do for him. The haze of battle was obscuring all of the things he didn't want to think about, as he brought his leg around for a low sweep kick. Ranma dodged out of the way, however he was noticeably slower than usual. Also, Ryoga's Chi sense, not very useful normally unless his opponent was using a battle aura or an invisibility technique, was relaying some interesting information. Apparently, Ranma was fighting with almost drained reserves.

As the two fought, Ryoga pushed Ranma, the pigtailed boy having to retreat for once. He had tried to lead Ryoga into a couple of Hiryu Shoten Ha traps, but the technique had been used on him far too many times for that to work. Every time he got close to the center of the spiral, Ryoga would have figured out where it was, and hit it with a Bakusai Tenketsu strike.

It was roughly ten minutes later when the furious battle came to an unexpectedly sudden end. Ranma was attempting to get some distance from his opponent, backing away rapidly, when his shoulder caught on a telephone poll and forcibly spun him sideways. It was a mistake that he never normally would have made, but the lost boy quickly capitalized on it, running in and bringing his extremely heavy weighted umbrella into his opponent's back with all of his strength. What he wasn't expecting, was that Ranma would not be thrown away immediately, having braced for the blow and hardened his body, but be folded almost in two at the impact point with a sickening crack.

As the umbrella's owner stopped it's movement with a shocked expression, Ranma's now limp form flew from it's end and through the air quickly, smashing with considerable force into the side of a nearby house. The house's wall crumbled when Ranma's form made contact with it, revealing a very surprised family inside, sitting around their kitchen table.

Ryoga had begun to run towards his rival's landing point as soon as Ranma came to a stop, knowing a critical strike when he saw it. Inside his head, one portion of his mind was celebrating. That blow must have done a very great deal of damage, maybe even killed Ranma! Of course, a much greater portion of his mind was in a blind panic. He had always ranted about killing Ranma and ruining his happiness, but he had never actually intended to DO it! Getting to the crumpled form of the pigtailed martial artist, Ryoga carefully lowered his hand to the other boy's wrist and felt for a pulse. There was one, but it felt extremely weak, as if it were barely there.

Clearing off a small pile of rocks that had fallen over part of Ranma's upper body to see his head, Ryoga turned very slightly grey as he saw a very bad looking gash extending from right temple to ear. Looking up in panic, he saw the gaping family that had been in the living room beyond the wall and said the only thing he could. "Call Dr. Tofu!" He didn't know the doctor very well, only having visited him once, while in cursed form, when Akane had asked the man to take a look at a sprained wrist that she had gotten during practice, but thought that he was near here. As the family continued gaping, he snapped. "Call him now!"

"Hiroshi, go and do what the man said." The mother of the family, a kindly looking woman with brown hair and eyes, said as she approached Ranma and Ryoga. "Can I help you with him?" She continued, leaning over.

Ryoga quickly moved out of the way, completely out of his depth. True, people got hurt quite frequently in Nerima, but something was telling him that this was much, much worse than usual. Ranma was laying perfectly still, not even his eyelids twitching, and he almost always woke up within moments of any trauma, to the head or otherwise.

HR

A few minutes later, Dr. Tofu came running up the street, his medical bag slung over his shoulder. He seemed to be panting, which was a pretty good indication of how fast he had gone to get here, as he was a very good martial artist in his own way. "Ryoga?" He asked, screeching to a stop. "What's happening?"

Ryoga still looked shocked, as he pointed towards Ranma's body that lay on the ground. Tofu immediately knelt next to him, carefully feeling the skin and bones in various areas. His eyes began to narrow, as he quickly pulled a gauze wrap out of his bag and bandaged the head wound. "I'm afraid we will have to call in some people with a bit more expertise than me." He said, at last, before standing again and walking into the house. Hiroshi Neomoto, One of Ranma's friends, and his family just stood in shock. It seemed that the unbeatable martial artist had finally fallen, and if Dr. Tofu's reaction was any indication, he had fallen very hard.

HR

Later that day, only about an hour before the sun was to go down, Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi Tendo entered the automatic sliding doors of Nerima general hospital. Dr. Tofu hadn't wanted to call them until he knew what was going on, but he was becoming more and more worried about the lost boy, who was beginning to glow with green energy while pacing around the waiting room, and wanted to bring in some people to calm him down and keep him company. As a result, he had phoned the Tendo home, only intending to ask Kasumi to come to the hospital. In fact, he hadn't even stuttered the request, it was so serious. Unfortunately, Nabiki had overheard the conversation, sold the information to Akane, and now here they were.

While the oldest Tendo was only slightly worried, and the middle just a bit interested, Akane couldn't decide whether to be worried sick or angry. Ranma had just come out of a life or death battle against a seemingly unbeatable foe, where he had told her… but no, she couldn't think of that for now. How could the Baka get himself hurt so badly that he would be transferred to an actual hospital? Hell, for the past few months he had been able to heal up most of his injuries so quickly that he didn't even have to visit Dr. Tofu anymore.

If he was faking or something to get her worried, she'd mallet him into next week! But… what if it WASN'T a trick? What if Ranma really was that badly hurt, that they had needed to put him in a hospital. As she walked down the halls to the part of the hospital where Dr. Tofu had told the Tendos to meet him, Akane's eyes began to suffer from tunnel vision. She even knocked one of the nurses out of her way by accident when she didn't see her, and just kept on going. Of course, Kasumi had apologized profusely after Akane had left.

Pushing the doors open to the Emergency room's waiting room, Akane saw only one person waiting there. Nerima had such a profusion of high powered, fast healing martial artists that this room never had many people in it, even the last time she had been here when her mother had… Cutting that thought off violently, she walked over to the only occupant of the place, a thoroughly miserable looking Ryoga Hibiki. "Ryoga, is that you?" she asked, surprised.

Ryoga's head shot up as soon as he heard Akane's voice, to see her looking at him with a touch of sadness, and a bit of worry. He looked away instantly. "It's me, Akane." He said, ashamed.

"What's wrong Ryoga? Dr. Tofu called and said Ranma was hurt. Is he okay?" Akane asked, wondering about the lost boy's strange attitude.

Ryoga tried to think of an answer, but couldn't. 'Oh, Akane. I hit Ranma so hard that I think I nearly killed him when I knew he wasn't up to full strength.' He thought, and then minutely shook his head. If she found out that he had done such a dishonorable thing, even to Ranma… Oh, what would she think of him? Hell, he thought pretty badly of himself at the moment.

"Ryoga, can you hear me?" Akane asked, snapping her fingers sharply in front of the lost boy's face. He responded surprisingly violently, jumping from his seat and looking around frantically. Spotting a door that lead deeper into the hospital, he ran for it. "Hey, where are you going Ryoga?" She yelled, running after him to the door only to find that it had locked behind him. She could have sworn, that for a brief moment, she heard him screaming that he was sorry to someone. Hearing someone clearing their throat, she turned back to the waiting room to see that Dr. Tofu had come in from a different door, and was looking serious.

"Dr. Tofu, is Ranma all right?" Akane asked immediately, trying, and failing miserably, to conceal the worry in her voice.

Tofu sighed tiredly. "Well, he did make it." He said, as he slumped into a chair near where Kasumi and Nabiki sat.

"Oh my, it was that serious?" Kasumi asked, with a hand to her mouth in shocked surprise. To Akane and Nabiki's astonishment, Tofu's glasses didn't fog a bit, he didn't start stuttering, and his hands and shoulders were rock steady at the voice of the eldest Tendo.

"Kasumi, Ranma was hit very hard in the back, and then shot through a brick wall… with no Chi protection." Tofu said, shaking his head tiredly. "The only reason he's still alive is because of his remarkably stubborn constitution, but he's out of immediate danger now."

"Can we go and see him?" Akane asked, hopefully.

"I don't think that would be a good idea today, how about you come tomorrow when he's awake and can talk to you?" Tofu asked, looking slightly nervous.

Akane nodded, although reluctantly. "Yeah, I'm sure the jerk's fine anyways. Come on Nabiki." She said, grabbing her elder sister and dragging her out of the room. Nabiki whirled on Akane when the two were in the hall, about to ask her what was wrong, when the younger sister threw herself onto the older and just held on.

"Akane, what are you doing?" Nabiki asked, blushing. She was looking around rapidly, making sure that no one from school saw her while she comforted her sister, who was now shaking on her shoulder. Suddenly, she realized what was going on. Each of the Tendos had a few remnants from the death of their mother. It had been Akane's turn to visit her when the older woman had died, and the girl had been terrified of hospitals ever since.

When she was eleven and needed her appendix removed, Dr. Tofu had had to anesthetize her in his office, take her to the hospital and keep her under until she got back. Comforting her sister and looking regretfully back at the waiting room, Nabiki lead Akane to the exit and outside.

END OF CHAPTER ONE.

END NOTE: This fic was originally mapped out to follow Ranma after he is injured and his martial arts are taken away from him forever. I've seen it done before, but it's always pissed me off how it's handled. Almost always, the NWC are played as evil, or at the least uncairing to Ranma after this happens, and I really can't see that. Well yes I can on some levels, but not the almost complete turning of the back that occurs so often in fics with this plot idea. Unfortunately, the idea was shoved out of my head before I could get to the part where the plot starts coming into it's own. Damn it...


	5. Reincarnation for the lazy

Ah, this is the second of three, and as you can see it's shorter. I think it comes from writing three chapters in the time I'd normally write one. I'll let you read it, then tell ya what I was thinking. Enjoy!

Reincarnation for the Lazy by Weebee.

The title refers generally to the author's laziness in using the concept, but there is a lazy Kami involved as well… Inuyasha is betrayed on mount Hakurei, and falls to Naroku's Miasma. Five hundred years later, Ranma Saotome has a dream, and things go down hill from there…

Prologue: Once a demon, always a Demon I suppose…

The half Youkai cursed as he leapt over a flailing tentacle, one of the last remaining pieces of what was once a mountain, or at least what they had thought to be a mountain. In reality, it had ended up as a trap sprung by Naroku, and he was running for his life with that damned wolf slung over his shoulder.

As the two ran through the caves, Koga began to open his eyes, his body hurting all over. The last thing he remembered was fighting that guy from the Shishinintai, and then… As the strange object he was laying on gave a jolt to the side, he looked over to see the red sleeve of Inuyasha's fire rat hair Kimono. "Mutt, what's happening?" he asked, his throat feeling raw from the Miasma that thickly coated the air here.

"This place is collapsing, and we have ta get outta here!" Inuyasha snapped back, as he came into view of the end of the caves. As he exited, he saw Kagome, Sango and Miroku waiting outside for him.

"Inuyasha, look out!" Sango called, as Inuyasha heard a loud cracking sound from the rocks above him. Looking up, he saw a rock hurtling down to crush him and Koga into paste. He tried to jump away, but Koga surprised him by shoving off of his shoulder, hitting the ground running and giving Inuyasha just enough of a push in the opposite direction to prevent him from getting out in time.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled, as she ran forward to try and save the dog demon. Miroku put a hand on her shoulder, while looking to Sango.

The demon exterminator nodded, slipping her gas mask over her mouth and charging for the rock that buried Inuyasha, however she was forced to back off as a stream of liquid Miasma engulfed the rock, as well as the person beneath it.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled again, however Miroku kept his firm grip on her shoulder.

"Kagome, humans can't survive in that much Miasma, you'll be killed if you try and get to him." He explained, as the girl broke down and began to sob into his robe. It was a good measure of the situation that he never moved his hand away from comfortingly stroking her back, and Sango didn't seem the least bit mad about him holding another woman.

Koga, who had been standing off to the side ever since he had escaped from the mountain, looked at Kagome in astonishment. She was crying this much over the mutt? Deciding that for once, retreating was better than trying to comfort the woman he loved, he quickly turned around and ran.

HR

On a plain of rock at the foot of what was once mount Hakurei, Kikyo confronted Naroku, her bow pulled back and aimed at his heart. Just as she was about to loose the arrow, she staggered as a wave of demonic energy rolled over her. 'It, it can't be… Inuyasha has…' She thought, before Naroku capitalized on her moment of distraction, sending several tentacles to knock her back off of the plain and into a crack in the ground that had filled with Miasma.

"So, that annoyance Inuyasha is out of my way." He said, before chuckling. "This plan has yielded surprising results." Turning away from the mountain, he surrounded himself with a barrier and flew off.

HR

In a nearby swamp, a dog demon sat with his two companions, a small shriveled demon and a human girl in a checkered Kimono. "Hmm?" He asked, as he raised his head to the sky, an expression of seriousness and slight surprise coming over his usually expressionless features.

"Jakken, Rin, We are leaving." He said, as he stood from his position on a fallen log.

"Yes lord Seshomaru." Came the response of the girl and demon, as they stood to follow their master.

"What do you think lord Seshomaru's doing?" The girl asked, excited.

"We should not question lord Seshomaru's actions, he is far wiser than I, his servant, and some lowly human!" The small demon responded, slightly pompously.

"whatever you say Jakken-sama." The girl said, as she ran off to follow Seshomaru, who had started walking without regard to whether the two were following him.

"Wait for me!" Jakken yelled, running after the two receding forms.

HR -Modern world, Nerima district-

"Kagome!" Ranma yelled, as he shot bolt upright in his futon, panting slightly.

"Go back to sleep, boy!" Came an angrily scrawled sign, that knocked Ranma on the side of the head.

The blunt force trauma actually helped the pigtailed martial artist calm down, the pain bringing him back to reality from the dream he had been having. It had quickly faded away upon waking, but he could still remember the face of a black haired girl, and the feeling of being crushed. 'Who the heck's Kagome? If she's another girl pop engaged me to I'll…' He thought, his anger at the notion causing a small portion of the hair on the top of his head to lose much of it's color, turning dark grey. He didn't seem to notice as he turned over and went back to sleep.

HR

The next morning, Ranma attacked his breakfast with enthusiasm, feeling even more hungry than usual. His father tried to steel some of it once, but he had bared his teeth and growled at him. He didn't know why he had done it, but it seemed to have terrified his father for some reason, and that was all that mattered.

"Come on Ranma, we're going to be late for school." Came Akane's annoyed voice, from the front hall where she was putting on her shoes.

"Yeah, I'm commin!" Ranma responded, his mouth still half full of food. Grabbing a piece of fish from the middle of the table, he hopped to his feet and walked out to meet his Fiancée.

HR

As they walked to school, Akane shot a concerned glance over at Ranma. She wouldn't admit it, but she was worried about the jerk. He had acted really strangely at breakfast, he looked like he'd only slept half the night and if she wasn't mistaken, some of his hair had turned grey. Had all of the stress around here made him snap or something? Then again, it probably should have made her snap by this point too, given the fact that she'd been kidnapped by a flock of birds only a month before, and then the failed wedding… She shook her head, trying to banish that thought, and a new one came in it's place. "Hey Ranma?"

"Hmm?" The pigtailed boy asked, not taking his eyes off the fence in front of him.

"Who's Kagome?" Akane asked, noticing that the pigtailed martial artist on the fence next to her seemed to be surprised at the mention of the name, and a little worried.

"Kagome, I don't know what yer talking about, Akane!" Ranma shot back, overly strongly. If the tomboy found out he was dreaming about other girls, despite the fact that he didn't really want to, he didn't want to think about what would happen.

"You seemed to know who she was last night when you were screaming her name!" Akane said, getting a little angry now. She had been trying to show concern for the Jerk, and he had almost bitten her head off. For the next few minutes, the two walked in silence, until Ranma spoke up again.

"I don't know who she is, really Akane. I just…" He started, frowning worriedly.

"You just what, Ranma?" Akane asked, curiously. She had never heard Ranma sound quite the way he did now. It was a sort of mixture of worry and uncertainty.

"I had a dream about her, Okay?" He finally snapped, before continuing before Akane's temper could get the better of her. "I was on this mountain, and it was collapsing. I was tryin ta get out but I got shoved back by someone… and she was at the foot of the mountain with these two other people, looking scared outta her mind." He explained, before sighing. "I don't know what's goin on, but I felt like I didn't get off the mountain in time in that dream. Kinda felt like I actually died."

Akane winced. She had been studying Ranma while he told her about the dream, and saw the sense of fear that came over him as he said the last. She desperately wanted to mallet him for dreaming about some random girl that he hadn't even met yet, as if he didn't have enough girl problems already, but she had to admit that he couldn't really control what he dreamed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was like that Ranma." She finally said, surprising the pigtailed boy.

"No prob Akane, I'll be Okay." Ranma said, with a confident grin. A few seconds later, the two entered the grounds of Furinkan high, and Tatewaki Kuno stood in front of them, holding his sword. No, not his Bokken. Ever since the failed wedding, he had decided that he needed to use stronger measures to slay the demon Saotome, and had brought the bare steel to school every day. Of course, the laws against carrying anything larger than a dagger seemed not to apply to the Kuno family.

END.

This one didn't even end properly... ANYWAYS, it's a Ranma/Inu-Yasha crossover. The pairing was to be RanmaxKagome. No, it doesn't bash Akane to do this, and no, Ranma's being a reincarnation of Inu-Yasha doesn't make him start acting just like him. Then again, there isn't much of a difference between the two, IMHO.

Why'd I write it? I always found it odd that Inu-Yasha's with his dead lover's reincarnation. Not that I don't like InuXKag, they're a neat couple, but in adition to getting Ranma into the Inuyasha series, where he'll honk of Seshomaru QUITE a bit, I wanted to write one where Kagome gets her own Reincarnated Inuyasha, and I was even concidering a plot where a dead InuYasha and Kikyo end up getting together. Despite the focus on pairings in this note, the story was't going to be that relationship centered, It was just the only part of it I'd actually planned out. LOL.

PS:Koga would have gotten his ass kicked.


	6. Deathless

The third, and the last thing in my 'dead ideas' section. I hope you enjoyed them.

Deathless, by Weebee.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma. Also, this fanfiction is blatant theft of an idea by "Prospero Hibiki," known as "All we know of heaven." I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing it.

Summary, During the wish sword incident, the blade misinterprets a wish made by Kuno and Ukyo Kuonji gets a hold of it, making a wish. Three years later, that wish comes to it's final result, and our pigtailed hero is sent on a course of self destruction, that doesn't seem to want to proceed to it's proper end.

Weebee's demented mind entertainment brings you, A flagrantly ripped off plot line from a Hibiki, Deathless.

Prologue: The wish.

Ukyo Kuonji sat, gaping at the item that had fallen into her hands. It was a seemingly unassuming sword, A finely crafted Katana with no family crests or other ornamentation. In fact, it was the type of blade that a warrior of ancient Japan would probably not bat an eye at wielding in combat to defend his lord's honor. If it weren't for what she knew of it, she would have just considered herself lucky to get such a fine weapon and store it in her room. Fortunately, she knew what it was capable of. The blade had as much as told her when it came into her hands, as per the rather stupid wish of Tatewaki Kuno.

The blue thunder had wished that the sword grant a wish to the "Food preparing girl." Apparently, Ranma had been cooking him some sort of meal at the time. Of course, the sword had gone to someone who prepared food regularly, and was beautiful. Quite frankly, Ukyo was lucky that Kasumi hadn't been closer or the eldest Tendo may have gotten the sword, and who KNOWS what she would wish for.

Ranma still didn't know that Ukyo had the blade, having run by in search of it a moment before. The poor redhead looked really angry. Of course, Ukyo couldn't blame her. Ranma was comically vein about her female side's looks, and having the sword fly past her like that must have pissed her off, not to mention that it was her only shot at a cure.

Looking at the blade, Ukyo's thoughts came back to what she had been thinking about ever since the sword had flown through her shop window, shattering it to pieces, and landed in her hands. She could wish that Ran-Chan marry her, or pick her over the other girls, but that stuck in her throat as she tried to say it. She may have used the occasional deceitful tactic to get a date or a confession of love from Ranma, but she felt that making a wish such as that would create a hollow love.

Ranma would be devoted to her, and love her for the rest of his life… but in the back of her head she would always wonder, 'Does he love me, or is the sword making him love me?'

Of course, that brought her back to her original question. if she wasn't going to use it to make Ranma hers, what could she use it on? She could make herself rich, depriving herself of the satisfaction of knowing that she'd made her own way in the world, and damn what her father said, or she could wish that the other Fiancées were gone, possibly pissing Ranma off with her to the degree that he never spoke to her again. She could use the wish to cure Ranma of his curse, the way he had wanted to ever since he had heard about it.

Nodding to herself, she smiled. If she cured the curse, and then told Ranma about it, he would be grateful to her for it. Raising the sword into the air, Ukyo opened her mouth to speak. "I wish that Ran-Chan were always..." she started, before something interrupted her.

"Where the hell am I now!" Ryoga Hibiki roared, as he entered the restaurant.

Ukyo sighed in exasperation, as she lowered the sword. "Right Here." She said, gesturing around the Okonomiyaki Restaurant. Sometimes the lost boy could show up at the most annoying times, and she was rather annoyed at the interruption at the moment.

Within the wish sword, magical instructions began to tick away. The wish sentence was being processed, and turned into a literal instruction. "I wish that Ran-Chan was always right here." The programming, which was built with several safeties that many other magical artifacts weren't, quickly discarded several meanings for the term.

Surely, the woman didn't want Ran-Chan, Sub-categorized as Ranma Saotome from her memories, to be frozen in this exact place for all eternity. That was a directive that would cause the death of a human, anyways, so it could not do it. Searching for alternate meanings of the wish again, it came to one that it found acceptable. "I wish that Ranma Saotome would never die." Gathering it's magical energy, it began to get to work.

In the outside world, Ukyo cursed as she saw the sword in her hands begin to glow. It started to pulse energy, and a beam of it shot through the hole that the blade had previously made in the window. Frantically, she beat the weapon against the side of her grill, until the blade seemed to give with a loud snap. Ryoga just looked at her, wide eyed, not knowing what was going on. "Get out of here, NOW!" She yelled, causing him to back away hurriedly.

HR

Half a city away, Ranma Saotome cursed to herself as she tried to track the path of the wishing sword. It had passed by Ukchan's, and someone had mentioned something about a flying blur heading past the park, so here she was looking for it. As she entered the center of the park, a beam of light descended from the sky and slammed into her. It had no force to it, really, but it seemed to lock her legs into position, keeping her from jumping out of its path. She felt a mighty power coursing through her body for a split second, and then it was gone.

"What the heck was that?" She thought, before coming to a realization. That was a huge surge of Magic. Nothing else that she had seen could produce a light show like that. Cursing, she sank to the ground. Someone had used the wishing sword, and they had used it on her. Who knows what they had done to her? With a horror stricken expression, she quickly jumped to her feet, headed for the nearest source of hot water.

HR

Two hours later, Ranma was stumped. He could still turn into a guy, and to his disappointment, into a girl as well. He didn't have any extra compulsions that he could tell. Of course, if the wish were worded a certain way then he simply wouldn't be able to tell that anything was off. That, was the most frightening part of it all. Something in his life could have been fundamentally changed, and he would have never noticed. Hell, he could have not even been himself originally. With a shudder, he started walking towards the Dojo, passing Ukchan's Okonomiyaki. He was surprised when Ukyo came running out of the shop to look him over, the sword hilt visible in her hand. It was shattered directly above the base of the blade.

"Ukchan?" He asked, looking at the frantic and worried face of one of his many fiancées, and more importantly, his best friend. "What's wrong? Why do you have that sword?"

Ukyo sighed in relief. "Thank the Kami, you're all right." She said, before hugging him tightly. Ranma returned the hug uncertainly, until he heard the sound of A person clearing their throat behind him.

Turning around, he saw Akane glaring at him with fire in her eyes. "Hey Akane, I can explain, really!" He said, disengaging from Ukyo and running off as the youngest Tendo turned and ran, both forgetting about the broken hilt that the chief still held. Ukyo cursed as she threw the thing to the ground. It looked like things were getting back to normal.

END PROLOGUE.

NOTES.

I've seen in so many fanfic that the lack of safeguards on a magical artifact always caused problems. I also noticed that, despite the way it USUALLY goes in the Ranmaverse, the wishing sword never did anything really catastrophic, even with an idiot like Kuno wielding it. With those two facts, I decided to write a fic where the seeming safeguards on the sword end up doing really strange things. EG: The sword noticing that Ranma's core soul is male, and therefore not going to her. It's lucky they were there later, though, or Ranma may have found himself permanently stuck to Ukyo's restaurant floor. :D

STORY NOTES:Yes, as was mentioned earlier, this fic was inspired by all we know of heaven by prospero Hibiki. If you haven't read it, i reccomend you do so. It was too short though, and I wrote this in an attempt to continue the idea, that is, an undieing ranma with a deathwish, but still similar to the Ranma we know, as I really liked it... and then this sprung forth...


	7. Path of the Force

Vault Notes: Someone PMed me with this idea a few months ago. I think it was mid to late january. At any rate, I quite liked it, and I still have an outline for at least 10 chapters. Unfortunately, I can't seem to focus on fanfics ever since I started college. School sucks, yes. This one may reserect itself out of the dust one day. I really hope it does, if anything for vaward's sake... 

PS: Do me a faver, if you could, and write the name of the fic you're reviewing on the top of your reviews. Since stories occasionally come and go from the vault it's hard to tell what fic you're talking about. If you don't believe me, go look at the reviews for chapter 1... Half of them are for a chapter that doesn't exist anymore. ANYWAYS!!! On with the show!

Path of the force, Premise by vaward, Written by Weebee.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor shall I ever, own Ranma 1/2 or Star Wars. Don't sue me please.

Continuity notes: This fic takes place two years before 'A new hope' in the star wars continuity, and at the end of the Ranma 1/2 Manga, four months after the failed wedding. For Star Wars, the Movies will all be used, however DO NOT assume expanded universe elements unless I specifically mention them.

I'd humbly request that you not rip me apart if I get some, or even many, facts about the Star Wars universe a bit off. I'm using the movie scripts for this, not the actual movies, and it's been quite a while since I've read any of the expanded universe stuff, although I'd love to get my hands on some of it again.

Anyways, enough rambling. On with the show!

Prologue: The fall of the Falcon.

Han solo winced as the falcon jolted with the laser fire of yet another tie interceptor. "Damn it Chewie, get that hyper drive back online!" He yelled, briefly looking back to see his Wookiee copilot frantically working on the innards of his hyperspace drive that were scattered across the deck of the ship's piloting cabin. Unfortunately, his inattention cost him, as the falcon plowed into a piece of the debris in the orbital debris field that he and the tie squadron were flying through, and the sub-light drive went as well.

"Oh… damn!" he cursed, as his ship's angular velocity from an evasive maneuver caused it to spiral out of the debris field and hit the planet's atmosphere side on. He struggled desperately with the controls to present the ship's protected underside to the forces of planetary reentry, while Chewbacca scrambled away from his hyper drive repair duties to assist him, however it was a lost cause, as by the time the ship had been stabilized the remaining engines were completely gone, and it was about as maneuverable as a flying brick.

Looking out the forward transparasteel view port, the smuggler sighed in relief as he saw that he was heading for what looked like a long stretch of farmland, about 20 KM of it, to be exact. Still, the falcon was coming in fast enough that this was gunna hurt.

HR

On the Unryu pig farm north of Tokyo, a pigtailed martial artist tried to relax, breathing deeply of the fresh air as he ran through a few Kata of his family school. Stopping his movements, he looked around, seeing Akari Unryu's grandfather leaning on the fence to the section of pasture he was practicing in. "Need somethin' old man?" He asked, casually, as he walked over to lean on the other side of the fence.

"Yes sonny, Hirohito's being stubborn again…" the old man sighed, shaking his head.

Ranma grinned. "I'll go kick his ass for ya then, okay?" He said, hopping the fence and heading for the sumo pig pens. Truthfully, he didn't really know why he was here, aside from the chance to get a break from the usual stupidity of Nerima. Well, he was also here to help Akari's grandfather out while she and Ryoga went on their honeymoon, a thought that still made him shake his head in wonder, but still… Working as a farm hand wasn't exactly what he'd envisioned when he'd first gone on the training trip with his father all those years ago.

Growling, the martial artist walked into the pen of Hirohito, the farm's second largest specimen of ridiculously large hogs and Katsunishiki's closest rival for Yokozuna of pigdom. "C'mon ya big idiot. Gramps says he wants ya outta here." He said, cheerfully, as he cracked his knuckles.

The pig snorted, turning it's head away from the human that bothered it, but Ranma wasn't having that as he grabbed it by one ear and pulled. It squealed indignantly, but he kept pulling, and when it tried to charge at him he redirected the headlong rush to take it out into the gated feeding area where Mr. Unryu wanted it. 'Well, at least this is improving my strength.' He thought, wiping his brow and distantly wondering how a tiny girl like Akari could do this every day. Of course, now she had Ryoga to help her, and he supposed that Katsunishiki was always willing to lend a hand.

Speaking of Ryoga, the relationship between the two martial artists had gotten just plain weird over the four months since the failed wedding at the Tendo dojo between Ranma and Akane, settling with Akari apparently calming the pig boy down to the point where he remembered the times when he and Ranma had played together and joked as friends rather than the times when they'd tried to kill each other. Sighing as he considered that Ryoga was the ONLY one of his rivals or suitors who had calmed down, the pig-herding martial artist put a hand to his eyes, looking across the farm for any stray animals.

His first pass didn't show anything of interest, but as he looked for a second time, he noticed something that looked like a point of light in the sky. It would have almost looked like a star if it weren't for the fact that it was two in the afternoon and no stars could be seen.

As he squinted at the object, it seemed to get larger. "Oh man, I hope it's not rouge," he muttered, wincing. As he said that, he heard a loud rumbling noise, and the dot began to get bigger really quickly. Looking between it and where he thought it was going to land, he sighed in relief that the farm house was in the other direction. Of course, with how big the thing was getting, it would do quite a bit of damage to the fields. It was at that point that the object impacted, about half a kilometer away, and began to skid towards Ranma and the animal stalls. Luckily, it slid right past them, however after it did so Ranma started running after it, dodging the few pieces of metal that it slewed off in it's slide.

Within a few seconds, the large object had come to a stop, however it was radiating enough heat to make the pigtailed man think twice about approaching it. While he waited for it to cool down, he looked it over. It was definitely not the usual for Nerima, being a large metallic disk like object, about five meters tall, with two projections on the front and a large black opening at the back. It almost looked like one of those space ships from that 'Star Trek' show Nabiki watched all the time.

As Ranma stood gaping, a ramp at the bottom of the large spaceship slowly lowered, steam and smoke flowing out of it along with the hacking coughs of a person.

"Hey! You okay in there?" Ranma asked, tentatively. Unfortunately, the person didn't respond, and Ranma heard a loud banging noise before the unconscious form of a brown haired man wearing a black vest over a white shirt came sliding down the ramp. "…guess not." He muttered, walking forward, being careful not to touch any of the hull outside the ramp, and kneeling down next to the unconscious person. Resting a hand on his neck, Ranma verified that he was still alive before rolling him over to get a better look.

The man was older than Ranma, about thirty years old by his guess, and had a large lump visible on the side of his head that indicated a probable concussion. As the pigtailed martial artist picked up the dead weight of the unconscious older man, a loud and resonant rumbling noise came from the smoke, followed by a deeper set of coughs. Carefully backing down the ramp, Ranma watched the opening closely, wondering what kind of monster had made the noise.

Within a few seconds, his question was answered as a large brown furred… thing… stumbled it's way out of the ship, some parts of it's full pelt singed, and a bandoleer that was slung around it's torso torn on one side to let it's cargo of small canisters swing freely.

The martial artist debated whether to fight this thing or help it out as he had the human, as it looked half dead. It was the strangest looking animal he'd ever seen, and it was definitely large and, probably when healthier, intimidating looking, however it was beginning to waver on it's feet. His action decided, he walked forward again, offering a shoulder that the fur covered creature gratefully supported itself against as it shambled down the ramp and onto the grassy farmland that the ship had plowed up.

"C'mon, let's get you guys back to the house." Ranma said, knowing that the unconscious person couldn't hear him, but saying it anyways in hopes the animal would take comfort from the friendly way in which it was said. The creature growled in acknowledgment, and the two began to head for the farm house that was a fair distance away.

HR

When Ranma stumbled into Akari's house, the unconscious person still in his arms and the large creature leaning against his shoulder, he desperately wanted to put at least one of them down. He wasn't Ryoga, after all. Showing the animal to a chair, which he thought it should be able to sit in since it was walking on it's hind legs, he then dumped the person on the couch, and went looking for the Unryu family's first aid kit. Luckily, since they were farmers and almost as prone to minor injuries as the combatants in Nerima, it was easy enough to find and he began dressing the unconscious man's injuries. To his surprise, the furry creature had gotten up from it's chair, seeming to have recovered a bit, and began to help him. "I don't suppose yer a cursed person or something?" Ranma asked, looking curiously at the creature. It just growled, almost sounding like a human's "What?" before continuing in it's task.

HR

A few hours later, Han Solo awoke with a splitting headache. "I'm never going to drink with Lando again…" he vowed, for what must have been the hundredth time, before he heard a pleased growl from his Wookiee companion, Chewbacca, and the chatter of some alien language that he couldn't understand. Sometimes, he really wished that everyone would just speak basic or Corellian and make his life easier.

Cracking his eyes open, he immediately winced and wished he hadn't, however he fought his way past the pain of what he thought was a hangover and looked around. This was definitely not a room in cloud city… and now that he thought of it, after his little stunt of steeling Lando's ship a year or so ago he was lucky for that. Chewie was sitting on a chair next to the couch he was laying on, a worried expression on his shag carpet of a face as he growled in enquiry. "I'm fine Chewie…" he scratched out, responding to the Wookiee's question. A second later, the voice that had previously spoken in an alien language started up in basic, though it had a notable regional accent that colored quite a few of it's words.

"Ah, You're an American, are ya?" it said, causing Han to turn to face the speaker, a young human who's black hair was tied back in a twisted ponytail.

"American?" he muttered, looking confused. "I'm Corellian, kid." Han muttered, trying to sit up on his couch.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" the kid said, as Han's head exploded in pain once more. The smuggler groaned in agreement as he lay back down, one hand going to his head where there were a few bandages applied. "What happened?" He muttered, dazed.

"I dono." The kid said, shrugging. "Your plane or whatever it is just came tearin outta the sky and crashed in one of Akari's grandfather's fields. When I got there, you were unconscious and your pet over there was limpin out with a lot of cuts and bruises."

At the 'pet' remark, Chewbacca growled loudly, raising a fist. Han laughed. "Chewie says that if you call him my pet again he's going to hurt ya kid." He translated, grinning.

The kid blinked and looked to the Wookiee. "Chewie?" He asked, curiously. "Oh, and my name's Ranma, not kid." He snapped, annoyed.

"Chewie. The Wookiee over there." Han said, casually. "You know Wookiee's have enough strength to rip human arms out with little or no effort, so I'd play nice. Oh, and I think I'll keep calling ya kid." Saying this, the smuggler once again tried to stand, this time helped in the struggle to his feet by his Wookiee friend. "So, you mind telling me where my ship is so me and Chewie can get out of your hair?"

"Enough strength to rip arms out… sounds like a fun fight." Ranma said, grinning at the Wookiee, who bared his teeth in return.

"Chewie, I'll let you kill him later, for now we need to find the ship." Han said, patiently. He knew that on occasion the Wookiee liked engaging in a random brawl, despite his once held designation of 'Chewbacca the wise.'

"Yeah," Ranma said, thinking that he'd have to have a spar with Chewie later. "Yer ship crashed in the fields a bit away from here." He explained, pointing off in one direction. "Think you can walk to it?"

Han tested his balance, swayed a little, regained it and then nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

HR

A few minutes later, while Chewie grumbled in Wookiee language about the old man the three had run into on their way out of the house calling him a demon, Han cursed as he saw the Falcon. The damage wasn't irreparable, however it definitely wasn't a two hour job and the ship would need some pretty heavy repairs on their next run to a spaceport. Suddenly, his face went pale as he ran into the falcon and to it's rear holds, followed by Ranma and Chewie. His curse as he saw that the whole shipment of glitterstim spice he had been carrying had flown out a blaster hole in the cargo holds could be heard all the way up at the farm house, where Grandpa Unryu was busy making a spirit ward to banish Chewbacca.

"I don't get it, what's wrong?" Ranma asked, as he looked at the empty cargo holds.

"You don't get it…" Han muttered, glaring at the stupid kid. "That shipment was worth a few hundred thousand credits, and now Jaba's gunna take it out of my hide!" He shouted, however he wasn't sure who he was angry at. "On top of that, it's going to take at least a couple of days to repair the falcon and I've got no credits to my name, let alone whatever this backwater planet in the middle of nowhere uses for currency."

With that statement, Ranma's sometimes slow, at least out of combat, mind finally made the connection. Ship that looked like it was out of Star Trek, a walking shag carpet that didn't like being called a pet and a reference to a backwater PLANET. "Wait, you're aliens…"

"Oh wow, give the kid a gold star." Han muttered, sarcastically.

"Well look, erm, what was yer name again?" Ranma asked, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Han." Han said, still very annoyed.

"If yer only gunna stay around for a few days while you repair your ship, you can sleep here, I guess." Ranma said, uncertainly. "I just hope Grandpa Unryu doesn't try to kill Chewbacca…" He muttered.

Han, having missed Ranma's final statement and with the smuggler's instinct for free things going at high gear, nodded. "Thanks, kid."

HR –A few days later-

Chewbacca growled as he tried to lift one of the heavier components of the hyper drive out of it's floor cavity, thinking dark thoughts about his partner all the while. Han had said that he would help with this section of the work. Even if your average human didn't have near as much strength as a Wookiee, the assistance would still be appreciated.

As the large fur covered being growled again and tried to lift the heavy piece of machinery, he was surprised by the thing suddenly getting lighter in his hands. Looking up with a surprised snort, he saw the strange human who had called him Han's 'pet' when they had first met, an insult that he still hadn't forgiven the boy for, holding the other side.

"Figured ya needed some help." Ranma explained, as the two moved the component out of its pit and settled it on the deck. Chewie nodded gratefully, reluctantly deciding that the human wasn't quite as irritating as he had first thought… Though the elderly one who had been sneaking up on him and hitting him with some sort of paper wards for the first day and a half that he and Han had stayed at the farm house was THIS close to being broken in half.

"I brought out some food." Ranma said, walking to the door of the Falcon's engineering cabin and picking up a plate that he'd left on a shelf there. Chewie eagerly swiped the plate, starting to dig in. "Yeash, ya eat almost as fast as me 'n pop." Ranma laughed.

"Having fun?" Han asked, having just walked into the section of the ship from the cockpit that was a bit off to the side. Chewie took his face away from the plate and roared.

"What'd he say?" Ranma asked, looking to the Corellian smuggler.

"He said 'good food, who made it?'" Han translated, as he swiped a few strange looking white balls of what looked like some sort of grain off of the tray. As he bit into them, he nodded. "And I want to know the same thing." He said, as he chewed thoughtfully.

Ranma shrugged. "Those are mine. Can't cook nearly as well as Kasumi, but it'll do."

"Wait… I thought that toxic sludge that we ate last night was yours." Han said, looking disgusted.

"That was some of Akane's food that she made me take with me. I TOLD you not to eat it." Ranma snickered, remembering the look on Han and Chewbacca's faces when they had bitten into Akane's… interesting… culinary concoctions.

"Akane, she's your fiancée, right?" Han asked, having gotten a bit of Ranma's story out of him over the past few days.

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, unfortunately." He grumbled, looking down at the floor.

"Well, I didn't come back here to exchange pleasantries." Han said, breaking Ranma out of his brief depression. "It turns out the imperials have finally figured out where I landed."

Chewie snorted.

"It WAS a landing, Chewie!" Han yelled, glairing at his companion. Chewie just snorted again.

"How long 'till these empire guys catch up with you?" Ranma asked, worriedly. Over the time that Han and Chewie had stayed at the farm house, they had been hearing periodic news stories of different countries detecting 'strange black aircraft' violating their airspace, and Han had identified them as Tie fighters. Ranma had known that they'd been getting close to searching Japan, but he had been hoping the two off-worlders would be gone by the time they got here.

Han shrugged. "About two hours, I think. The Falcon's sensors just picked them up on a search pattern in the area, but we're pretty hard to find." Then, he glared at Chewie. "So enough standing around, let's get that hyper drive back online!"

Chewie grumbled something that roughly translated to "But you were the one standing around," before crouching next to the hyper drive's exposed components and poking around inside.

Ranma, in order to get out of the way of the working Wookiee, quickly stepped out of the Falcon's engine room and down the ramp to the farmland surrounding the ship. Walking a few feet away, he looked back to survey the rust bucket… erm, vessel quickly. Truthfully, it didn't look much better than it had after the crash landing that had deposited Han and Chewie here. Han had claimed that it looked "Good as new" when he had finished attaching a new hull plate to fix a sealed breach the day before, but if that was so then it had looked like a pop can that had been kicked around too many times right off the lot, and he would have asked for his money back.

"A beauty ain't she?" Han asked, as he stepped down the ramp next to the martial artist.

"Yeah… sure, Han." Ranma said, showing one of his very rare diplomatic moments.

"Aw, I bet she could make the kessel run in fourteen or fifteen parsecs, easy!" Han said, noticing Ranma's doubtfulness. "Fastest ship in space!"

"So where did you get this thing again?" Ranma questioned, curiously.

"Won it in a Sabacc game." Han explained. "Hey, want me to teach you how to play and have a friendly game?" He offered, hoping to con the kid out of some money.

"If it's anything like Poker, count me out." Ranma muttered, remembering his abysmal failure at that game during the gambling king incident.

"I don't know what poker is, but Sabacc is easy. C'mon and I'll show you." Han said, slinging an arm over Ranma's shoulder.

HR

An hour and a half later, Ranma was grumbling as Han took the last of the ration bars from his pack that he'd bet in the Sabacc game. 'It's easy he says…' he thought, sarcastically. At that moment, Chewbacca poked his head out from the engine room and roared at Han.

"Ah, perfect timing." Han said, raking in Ranma's food rations. 'looks like we're ready to take off. I'll just go get my stuff from the house."

"Yeah sure, after stealing all my stuff…" Ranma grumbled, following the smuggler down the ramp.

"Aw, stop being a poor loser kid!" Han laughed, as the two walked across the field.

HR

Storm trooper ar-415 was a good soldier. He followed orders, even when it was mind numbingly boring. He also kept chanting this mantra to himself as he and his tie squadron-mates flew over yet another stretch of this oh so boring rock. Why couldn't he be like one of the members of squadron 12? THEY were flying over the northern continent, having all those dogfights with the pathetically inferior aircraft of this backwater planet while he was flying over this stupid island chain.

His internal monolog was broken when his ship's scanners beeped at him for attention. It seemed there was a large abnormal signature in the middle of a farm ahead. Desperate for something to do, he gunned his tie fighter's engine, the rest of his squadron following behind.

HR

As Ranma and Han walked back towards the Falcon, the pigtailed martial artist looked at the Corellian fondly. "I'm gunna miss you and Chewie when ya go." He said, out of the blue. It was the truth, too. Most of the time, when someone came out of the sky they almost immediately decided to kill him. Han and Chewie were honestly a good change from that routine, even if the Corellian was an annoying and arrogant bastard. After thinking that, he wondered why he had the urge to sneeze.

"It was pretty nice having a few days of piece for me too." Han admitted, shrugging. "not exactly the usual for a smuggler." Of course, while he thought of this he was trying desperately NOT to think of what Jaba was going to do to him when he found out that Han had 'lost' all of his spice. "I'll be sure to plot this sector for hyper jumps before I leave."

Ranma, who had no idea what a hyper drive or hyper jump really were, just shrugged and shook his head before a strange noise caught his attention. "Hey Han, you hear that?"

"What?" Han asked, listening for what Ranma was hearing.

"It's a sorta screaming sound." Ranma said, slowly. "It's comin from over there."

As Han squinted in the direction Ranma indicated, his eyes widened. There were six quickly increasing dots flying towards them and now he could hear the sound as well, the distinct whining noise of a tie fighter's engines going full tilt. "Ranma." He said, calmly.

"Yeah?" Ranma asked, confused.

"We should start running now." He continued, before doing so.

HR

As it turned out, Han and Ranma's attempts to run for the Falcon were ultimately futile, as the ties had reached it before them. Strangely, they seemed to just be circling the ship, until one of them caught sight of them and flew away from it's squadron.

"What are they doing…?" Han wondered, before he recalled seeing something similar to this when he had served in the Imperial guard on Kashyyyk. Sometimes, bored tie pilots would try to snipe running enemy troops before they could reach their ships. "Get down kid!" He yelled, grabbing Ranma and pulling him to the ground just as the fighter opened up with it's turbo laser batteries, tearing the ground just behind the two to pieces.

"What the hell was that?" Ranma yelled, however he had slipped back into his native language, and Han couldn't understand any of it. The two jumped to their feet and started running for the ship again, however another blaster volley hit nearby, causing them to run back a bit and lose all of their headway.

This happened several more times, before Ranma began to get frustrated. "Han, run for the ship. I'll get these… whatever the hell they ares."

"You gotta be kidding, kid. Last time I checked you didn't have an industrial blaster handy!" Han yelled, but was cut off as Ranma shoved him forward. The Corellian began to run, justifying his actions with the thought that if the kid wanted to get himself killed, who was he to stop him?

As Han started to run forward, he was surprised to realize that none of the enemy laser fire was aimed at him. They all seemed to be aiming at the kid. As he looked back to find out why, his mouth fell open. The kid was… glowing… and he was jumping around like nothing he'd ever seen. "Maybe I shouldn't have laughed at all those Jedi stories…" he muttered, as he returned his focus to the path in front of him and reached the ship. As he scrambled up the loading ramp, Chewbacca gave a joyous growl and slid into the co-pilot's chair.

"Everything ready Chewie?" Han asked, strapping himself into the pilot's seat. He was greeted with a loud growl, and began flipping switches for a fast take-off. As the falcon lifted off, Han's eyes were drawn to the side of his cockpit window, where he could just barely see the battle between Ranma and the five tie fighters. Wait, hadn't there been six originally? Looking again, he saw that there was a large pile of smoking debris on the ground. "Holy…" he muttered, open mouthed, as he unconsciously guided the ship closer to the battle.

It was as the pigtailed martial artist cupped his hands to shoot what looked for all the world like a heavy turbo laser blast that the inevitable happened. One of the fighters clipped him with one of it's weapons. It was only a glancing blow, as anything else would have disintegrated the boy where he stood, but it was enough to send him spinning one hundred and eighty degrees and falling to the ground. Right before this happened though, the ball of light had exited his hands and knocked a second tie out of the air and to it's smoking death.

Chewie growled in dismay as he saw the boy fall, looking stricken.

"We… we have to get out of here…" Han stammered, his mouth growing dry. At the reproving growl from his companion, he threw up his hands. "What do you want me to do about it?" Another growl. "No way… it's suicide!"

This time, Chewie gave a long series of growls.

"You're… right." Han said, finally sighing. "You know I'm an idiot for agreeing with you, right?" Chewie nodded happily as the falcon turned towards the fallen form of Ranma, it's heavy laser batteries starting up to drive away the four remaining ties. Han knew that they would be back within a few moments, this time shooting for the ship, so he had to be quick.

"Chewie, you fly. Don't you dare leave me down there!" He yelled, jumping out of the pilot's seat and heading out of the cockpit. Within seconds, he had the ramp lowered and was standing on the end as the ship lowered to the ground. As he jumped out, the Falcon shook from a laser barrage and he lost his balance, but quickly regained it as he hit the ground, ran to Ranma's side and grabbed him by the shoulders. Luckily, the Falcon was close by, so he managed to drag Ranma onto the ramp within a few seconds and hit the button to raise it.

As the ramp raised into it's locked position, the disheveled and half terrified smuggler looked down at the unconscious form of the martial artist lying in front of him. "You owe me one kid." He muttered, as he staggered to his feet, quickly reentering the cockpit. "And YOU can stop grinning like that!" Chewie just growled in satisfaction as he began to tap buttons on the panel above his head.

HR

In orbit of the earth, commander Caran Midarn cursed in fluent hutties as he paced around the interdictor Empire's dagger's bridge. That damned Corellian. Why hadn't he just stopped and allowed him to search his cargo like he'd asked? NO! Now he was here in orbit of some damned primitive planet who's major powers seemed to think that they could threaten the empire's finest with their stupid little military. He'd been forced to call for a star destroyer as backup due to procedure, but at this point he was ready to start firing his own ship's main batteries at the little arrogant bastards' capital cities, just to shut them up.

"Commander, the Corellian YT-1300 is exiting the planet's atmosphere!" one of his crew reported.

"Good, get rid of it!" He snapped, annoyed.

"Aye sir… but there are also several missiles heading for our position at high speed from the north hemisphere." The crewman reported, slightly nervously.

"WHAT?!" Commander Midern yelled, as the twelve high yield nuclear devices that were launched from the United States detonated against the interdictor's outer hull, as it's shields had been down for the easier launching and return of fighter craft. One missile even managed to enter the ship's launch bay. Needless to say, the interdictor was quickly destroyed.

HR

In the Millennium Falcon, Han and Chewie gaped as they watched the interdictor that had caused them so much trouble on their current trip get blown to pieces. "Looks like we're having some good luck for once." Han muttered, before Chewie started grumbling worriedly. "Aw, stop worrying Chewie, we'll be… what?" Han yelled, as the full content of his friend's grumblings filtered through his brain.

It was at that moment that an imperial star destroyer dropped from hyper space near earth. "Chewie, prepare for hyperspace jump!" Han yelled, as he began to press buttons on the falcon's navigational computer rapidly. Although a completely blind jump was an EXTREMELY bad idea, he had his original jump vector to follow.

When he'd originally been pulled out of hyperspace in this area he had been very close to the planet's orbit, so if he could get into the right position again, he could probably just continue the previous jump from where he'd left off, especially without the interdictor's gravity generator screwing with hyperspace. Within a few seconds, the Falcon was in position. "Jump now Chewie!" He said, as the Wookiee quickly threw a lever on his side of the cockpit.

As the Falcon jumped into hyperspace, Han's last sight was of the Star Destroyer approaching earth. If he'd stayed just a few minutes longer, he would have seen it open up with it's full battery of turbo lasers, laying large portions of the planet waste.

END PROLOGUE.


	8. A Random Error

Possible Title: Random Error.

Fic Note: This is a 'test bed' for a fanfic idea that my muse won't let me drop. Truthfully, I like it as well, but, given how few people have actually seen the other show in this crossover, I felt I had to see what the response was like before actually publishing it as its own work.

Please, tell me what you think. Is this a neat enough idea to keep writing, are there enough people on here who know about ReBoot, or are willing to wait for explanations, that it will be enjoyable?

Whether this fic continues is truly and honestly up to you, my readers, however few of you there may be. Hell, if you've got a suggestion for a better title, throw that in too… though I actually kinda like this one.

Now, on with the show!

Disclaimer. Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi. ReBoot is owned by Rainmaker entertainment. I do not wish to infringe on these copyrights, and am not making any money off of this. Now please, do not sue me.

Summary: Megabyte begins his hunt, and creates a hunter to chase the sprites through the conquered Mainframe. He really should have been more careful when choosing a model…

Version 5.1.0, Run Prog.

'Come on, come on…' The red haired sprite thought, sliding around another corner as the red flashing lights reflected eerily off of the sides of the corridors. She decelerated quickly as she saw a team of five viral binomes, file lockers in their hands, standing in front of the entrance. She began to junk from side to side as the locker bolts slammed into the walls around her, withdrawing her Katana and lopping off several barrels as she charged through the group.

"Aw, Megs sugar, you shouldn't have." She commented, seeing that the door at the end of the hall was sliding shut. Rolling into a slide, she got clear of the edge of the door just as it slammed down to the ground with a loud bang. Climbing to her feet, she held the small black box she'd been carrying under her left arm to her chest, gasping for air. "I've got to keep moving." She resolved, hearing the whining of the engines of several ABCs coming near.

Unfortunately, she didn't start moving quickly enough, as the ABCs swooped in, aiming all of their main weapons at her. "Aw now come on. You wouldn't hurt lil old me, would ya?" She asked, dropping her sword but keeping a tight grip on the box. In answer, the barrels of the Armored Binome Carriers' guns began to glow, building up energy. She gulped, looking for an escape from this situation, when she heard a voice that she'd never been more grateful to hear in her life.

"Hi, need a lift?"

"Ray?" She asked, as a silver and orange figure on a surf board flew into the middle of the group, grabbed her by the hand, and started flying back into the air as quickly as he could.

"The one and only," he quipped, the ABCs turning and falling in behind him, their energy blasts flying past the two as he slid quickly from side to side. "So, did you get it?"

"It's right here, sugar." Mouse said, grinning just enough to show her small fangs as she held up the black box. "Though I don't know what she wants with a sudo command."

"Ours is not to reason why!" Ray Tracer said, turning his surf board into a gap between two buildings and smiling in satisfaction as two of the ABCs that were following them blew up in a fireball.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Mouse growled, leaning against him for stability as the two took extremely tight turns through the labyrinth that had once been G-Prime, Mainframe's main industrial district and Megabyte's old main base.

She found it extremely ironic that G-prime, and therefore the Tor, had become the safest part of the city since the neo-viral war, what Megabyte called his 'hunt,' had started. As Ray descended to the street after shaking all of the ABCs, she looked back to the principle office. "I wonder what blue boy's plannin?" she wondered.

HR.

Megabyte snarled, slamming his hand down on the table in the middle of the principal office's 'war room,' as the two blips that represented Mouse and Ray disappeared into the background noise of G-prime. "They've gotten away again!" Bringing up several Vid Windows with the gesture of one hand, he watched a replay from multiple angles as the web surfer lead his forces on a wild goose chase. He winced especially hard when two of his ABCs smashed into each other in a tight tunnel.

Unfortunately, things like this were to be expected. Those sprites had been fighting him, and other viruses, for a very long time, and a bunch of virally infected binomes weren't going to be enough to stop them. Unfortunately, short of deleting the entire system now and ruining all of the glorious revenge he had planned out for when he got back in-system, there was nothing else he could do.

"You." He snapped, pointing to a rather recently infected Binome, who had once been Dot's personal assistant. "Maintain the defense. I am going to enter the archives."

"Yes sir, ma'am, sir!" Specky said, saluting quickly, though his knees started to knock together as the virus leveled a look at him. "Right away." He finished, scurrying to the central table.

Nodding slowly, Megabyte exited the room, headed to one of the principal office's greatest treasures, the database that had been installed there by the user hours before.

HR.

Coasting down through the mass of zip bins full of files of various types, Megabyte dismissed a lot of the old diagnostic programs, file deleters and other items. All they would do would be to let those cursed sprites get access to more power when they inevitably stole them off of his soldiers. No, he needed something else. Moving to the bottom of the archive, he saw the section that Fong had labeled "Interesting, but useless." Sometimes, the old fool tended to disregard data that he, himself, could find very inventive uses for.

Pulling one of the data files out at random, the blue skinned virus raised a hand to his chin as he looked over the row upon row of JPG images. Pulling one outfrom the middle of the group, it showed a sprite, standing in an odd position and launching some form of energy from its hands.

"If nothing else, these will entertain me until the sprites decide to attempt another assault." He decided, taking the set of JPGs out of their containment and moving up to the top of the archives again.

HR.

"Oh, you two are back!" Dot Matrix said, relief clearly audible in her voice as she ran to meet Mouse and Ray, Matrix and Andraia following behind her.

"Just barely, darlin." Mouse said, holding up the black box. "But I got you your command."

"Oh, thank you Mouse!" Dot exclaimed, reaching out for the box. She was surprised when the hacker pulled it out of her reach.

"Where's my pay?" She asked, evenly.

"Mouse?!" Dot asked, horrified.

"Only jokin." The other woman said, handing the device over. "You ask me, it's been getting way too gloomy around here.

Dot smiled slightly, as the five began to walk back towards the hideout, where the city's 'resistance' as Mike liked to call it, had set up shop.

"So… why do we need a run as command?" Matrix spoke up, his artificial eye having obviously scanned the black box.

"We're going to use it to release a tear." Dot explained.

"What? Why?" Andraia asked, nervously. She knew that, even with the restore that had been done several minutes earlier, Mainframe was a rather unstable system due to the assault of Daemon.

"I'll explain later." Dot responded, simply.

The other four just exchanged glances, as the command .com of Mainframe walked into the building.

"She always like this?" Ray asked, off-hand.

Matrix shrugged. "Pretty classic Dot."

As the group entered the hideout's main room, they stopped to listen to Bob, who was having a rather heated conversation through Glitch. "What do you mean you won't help?" He demanded, staring in disbelief at the little screen that was mounted on the top of his Keytool.

"I mean what I said." The voice on the other side of the link was that of Turbo, the head of the Guardian collective and technically Bob's commander. "That virus in your system is extremely dangerous. Now you either let us purge it, or we don't allow a portal from Mainframe into the super computer. It's that simple."

"But Turbo, I know Megabyte is redeemable, we can't delete him yet!" Bob objected.

"Then you aren't opening any portals to the super computer," Turbo said, then sighed as he saw the other guardian glaring at him. "Look, Bob. The council of guardians is very paranoid of an advanced virus getting into the super computer now. After Daemon took us so easily, we can't take any chances. I want to help, but I can't." He stopped for a moment, and then continued. "I'm sorry, son, but you're on your own for this one. Turbo out."

"They said no, huh?" Dot asked, moving up next to the blue uniformed, and skinned, guardian that had just been yelling into his Keytool.

Bob nodded. "I'm sorry, Dot." He said, sighing.

"They were talking about you not letting them delete Megabyte. What did they mean by that?" Matrix demanded, stepping forward.

"Look, Matrix, I don't have time to deal with you right now," Bob replied, brushing by the slightly taller man and heading deeper into the building.

Matrix was about to follow him, when Andraia laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hold up, Sparky," she said, before turning to Dot. "Why was he asking about a portal to the super computer?"

Dot looked after the departing guardian for a moment, before she started to explain.

HR.

"Hmm…" Megabyte said, reclining in his chair and paging through the window that was displaying the jpg images he'd recovered. They were actually rather interesting to read. He had obtained several collections, but most of them were stories about a force of good, noble heroes triumphing against the evil invaders. For a virus, that was pretty bad reading. This one, though… When he skipped past all of the character interaction to get to the parts he found interesting, he found a fighter who would use any dirty trick in the book, with the sole purpose of gaining more power and defeating his enemy.

Granted, there was a girl that he occasionally fought for, but everyone had their vices. "If only someone like this was under my command," he thought. The viral binomes he was currently using weren't terribly effective, for several reasons. Not least of these was that the infection he used to control them also tended to decrease the amount of processes they could dedicate to tactical planning.

Looking back at the images, which showed the character in the middle of a battle with another sprite and throwing his hand up into the air to summon a tornado of some sort, the virus grinned. "Why not?" He thought, simply. He had the full resources of Mainframe's principal office at his disposal, and anything that would annoy Bob and his friends while he worked out a way to crush them would be desirable.

Beginning a slow and satisfying chuckle, the virus began to head for the archives again, this time for a much more constructive purpose.

HR.

In the principle office's medical lab, Megabyte looked over Herr Doktor's cube shaped head, as the small Binome's unusually long fingers quickly typed on a massive computer console before him. "How are things proceeding?" he asked, suddenly.

The mad doctor binome jumped a few feet into the air, before quickly turning. "It will take some time, hair Grosenbighter. The data formats ve have are incomplete, und…"

"Just get it done soon," Megabyte said, looking to the side to see a large tank, the body of a sprite taking form inside in a wire frame state.

"Yes, Zir!" The doctor said, turning back to his keyboard, right before the principal office was shaken by an explosion.

"WHAT?!" The large virus yelled, gesturing again, and producing a Vid Window that showed Matrix and Andraia riding towards the center of the city on hover bikes that were bristling with weapons. "Doctor, keep working here. I have some house cleaning to do." He growled, leaving the lab as yet another explosion hit the building, causing it to shake heavily.

"Oh… no." The doctor said, as the shadow of his work station's screen fell across his body. Backing away, he cleared the screen's landing place… mostly. "NOOOO!!! Mine DIGITZ!!!!!"

HR.

"Okay, so why are we doing this again?" Matrix asked as he flipped his bike out of the way of yet another ABC before unloading several missiles into it.

"Distraction, remember?" Andraia responded. "Dot needs us to keep Megabyte busy so that she can use the run as command to create a tear."

"Right." Matrix replied, cursing as a blast of energy almost took his head off. "It's not like I don't enjoy blowing things up, but I wish she'd hurry up."

"I think she heard you." Andraia smirked, as the top of the principle office seemed to blow off, sending an extremely large tear into the air. Half a millisecond after that, Mouse's ship flew up, Rei flying next to it and throwing the lines to snare the tear as quickly as possible.

"Wow, that's gunna make one big portal," Matrix mused, he and Andraia flying their bikes in to cover the hacker and surfer as they lassoed the tear. Once the last point had been deployed around it, Mouse's face popped up on a Vid Window next to the green skinned man. "All right, let's get our Asciis outta here!"

"Sounds good to me!" he said, the group flying away as quickly as they could, the principal office's guns still barking at them, even with very little chance of hitting.

HR.

In the war room, Megabyte was busy issuing orders to his forces as a tap came at his shoulder. "I don't have time," he snapped, back-handing the tapping Binome into a wall. "Now dispatch squads 17 and 18 to cut off that ship!"

"Aye, sir, ma'am, sir!" Specky said, typing away furiously.

"I do wish he wouldn't do that." The virus grumbled, before turning to see who had disturbed him earlier. To his surprise, Herr Doktor was spread against the wall, half-way flattened, and his hands were bandaged.. again. "What is it now, Doctor?" He asked, wearily.

"It iz your new project, Zomething haz happened! I swear, it iz not my fault!" The binome reported, quickly. Megabyte looked between the battle on screen and the quivering binome before him, and sighed.

It looked like the sprites had already gotten away with the tear, so he would deal with this first. "Show me." He commanded.

HR.

Megabyte frowned as he walked through the smoking medical lab. "What happened in here?" He demanded.

"Some sort of overload, grosenbyter." Herr Doktor explained. "Iit crashed several of ze diagnostic programs."

"Did it do anything… else?" The virus asked, though he knew the answer.

"It… started the compiling process on your new project early, zir. I am sorry!" Herr Doktor explained, running deeper into the room. Megabyte merely growled in annoyance and followed him, before he reached a body on the floor.

Rolling it over, he saw the light green skinned face of a Mainframe data sprite, a black tail of hair rapped slightly around its neck. "Is he supposed to be glowing like that?" the virus observed, looking at his subordinate questioningly.

Herr Doktor shrugged, unsure, as the strange, blue glow that edged the prone sprite's body seemed to grow. "Maybe Ve should run?" He offered, meekly.

Megabyte nodded, beginning to turn as a wave of chaotic energy crackled through him and the room… right before the explosion.

END.

Yes, I know this chapter's short and a little slow, but it's merely the setup. If the fic is posted in its own right, I'll be sure to post this and the next chapter within hours of each other, at most.


	9. Slain Ranma

This one was my attempt at a Ranma/Slayers crossover. It was going remarcably well... up until the point when I realized that almost ALL of my future plot point ideas were cannibalized from other fics I'd written, or intended to write. Since two of these are plot points that are to be used in my main story, Contrast Match, and the rest are integral to their own otherfics, I shelved it.

As with any fic in 'the vault,' you are welcome to take portions or all of this fanfic and use it. Please tell me, though, so I can take it down and so I can read your fic.

ANYHOW, without further ranting, here's the fic. It's got all of it's original notes and everything. Fun, ne?

Slain Ranma.

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, now go away!

Okay, just to tel you, this is a rewrite of an idea I tried a year or so ago. It failed. I hope it doesn't again, since my muse woke me up at 4:30 A.M. to write this thing. Note that I have only seen Slayers, Slayers NEXT and Slayers TRI, plus one or two OAVs. That was a long time ago, too. I'm currently in the process of re-acquiring the episodes, (Never mind how,) but I really don't care if any of this goes against the books or Manga. If it goes against the Anime, though, please give me a kick to the head and a correction, K?

Misato(Sitting in a corner and grinning widely.): You bet!

Weebee(Gulping): Anyhow, on with the show!

Prologue, Abduction! Ranma crosses the line!

The springs of sorrow were quiet that morning, as the young guide made her rounds, checking to make sure that no one had fallen into any of the more inconvenient springs. Even though the transformations were one time events and easily reversible, finding oneself turned into a rabbit or, much worse, a small bug wasn't a pleasant experience for someone.

Unknown to the guide, several hundred meters away, the air began to ripple ominously. Within seconds, the ripple had intensified into a roiling and crackling storm of energy, and still seconds later it disgorged a single, badly wounded form. This form looked like a young man in a set of armor, though the wisps of dark energy where one arm had been and the evil looking red eyes would make one think twice about that assessment.

"Shabranigdo burn them." The being said, staggering slightly as the energies finally fully released him, and falling flat on his face. Hauling himself to his knees, he looked around. He'd been trying to escape a dragon's Ra Tilt attack by moving to the astral plain, but the attack had connected first and super-charged his transport spell.

Seeing the hundreds of tiny bamboo poles, the being, a low level Mazoku under the command of Xellos, groaned. This did not look much like anywhere he'd ever seen, and he didn't have the energy to perform a teleport.

Come to think of it, with the way his energy was bleeding out through both his physical and spiritual wounds, he wasn't going to survive much longer. Opening up his demonic senses, the Mazoku scanned the area for any sources of negative energy. The only life force present was that of a rather too cheerful young woman, walking along the edge of the valley full of springs where he found himself. She would be in range to see him within a few minutes, but even then, she was far too happy for him to feed off of.

There was another source of energy, though. Groaning, the armored man dragged himself up further, and began to stagger towards one of the springs. It took him several painful seconds to reach the water's edge, but as he looked down, he felt an immense amount of despair and death energy. "Yes… This will do." He muttered, letting his fatigue and wounds take over, and falling into the water.

Distantly, he heard the woman crying out in warning, but ignored her as he sank into the blissful energy filled coolness. Opening himself to take it all in, the Mazoku was brutally shocked to find out what happened next. Instead of relinquishing its own energy to him, the spring latched onto his and started pulling. As he sank into the deep spring, his mouth opened in a silent scream and his body rippled with a black aura.

'No, no… I will not be destroyed… that bastard dragon won't win…' He thought, desperately marshaling the last of his energy to pull out of the water. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, and the Mazoku died just after this action, sending the mass of dark power he'd gathered shooting out over the Jusenkyo Springs and fundamentally altering their function forever.

HR.

Standing next to the pool of water that she'd just seen the foolish new customer fall into, the pretty young woman that was currently the Jusenkyo guide frowned. 'The springs shall always take their victims.' She thought, sadly, pulling a small wooden sign and a bucket of paint out from nowhere, and writing 'Spring of drowned mysterious armored man" in neat Chinese script.

HR.

The Tendo Dojo was filled with smoke, explosions, and confusion as the farce that, at one time, had been called a wedding drew to a close. Ranma raised his fist, sending what had once been the family's shrine spiraling off in another direction with a silent apology to the late Mrs. Tendo. Behind him, Akane lay, having been knocked silly by a concussion bomb several minutes before.

This had gotten so far past out of hand that it wasn't funny, but he had very little idea what to do about it. The barrel of drowned man water was still flying around the room, and the battle for it was occasionally sending VERY dangerous projectiles towards innocents, or at least those few that couldn't, or were too stupid to, evacuate the room.

Cursing, the pigtailed martial artist noticed another projectile heading on a long, lazy arc towards his mother, who seemed to be standing there in a state of shock. His annoyance turned into blind panic when he realized precisely what the projectile was. Leaping forward instantly, he closed in on the flying barrel of water as quickly as he could.

To tell the truth, he had almost completely forgotten about it when the crap had hit the fan, but he didn't want to think about what his mother would do if she got a curse, and this WAS a chance for a cure to his own. Lashing out with a knife hand, the pigtailed martial artist shattered the wooden barrel, causing a torrent of water to slosh over his body. All of it fell short of his mother, fortunately.

For a moment, nothing happened. The fighting stopped, the room fell silent, and Ranma stood there, dripping and male. This was when everyone in the room expected Ranma to start celebrating… so to see him start screaming in agony was a shock. Sinking to the floor, the pigtailed boy's body exploded in a flash of black and green energy, as its form twisted and melted in ways that would make anyone there nauseous if they could see them.

One moment, it was male. The next, it was female. Finally, it took a form that was neither, but some mass of dark power, and began the cycle again. It screamed in wordless pain as the incredibly quick transformations ripped through it, and everyone in the room covered their ears at the unearthly sound, before… it disappeared.

"What… happened?" Ryoga, the first one who was capable of speaking, asked as he looked at the spot where Ranma had been. Instead of the pigtailed boy, all that was there was a burnt patch of floor and several wisps of smoke.

"Ah, so the foul sorcerer has fled the mighty blade of Kuno Tatewaki, the blue thunder of Furinkan high! Finally, my battle is complete!" Kuno orated, smiling proudly. "And now, 'tis time to claim my prize." With that, the kendoist walked towards the unconscious Akane, still in her slightly burnt bridal gown.

Mousse was busily being beaten up by Shampoo, so Ryoga walked up behind the Kendoist and knocked him on the head with his umbrella. "Stay away from her!" He snarled, then looked down at the prone girl in sadness. "She's not going to be very happy when she wakes up." He sighed, heading into the house to get Kasumi, and actually managing to go the right way for once.

In one corner of the room, Nodoka Saotome took the time to process precisely what had happened, blinked several times, and walked slowly into the house, clutching her wrapped Katana tightly.

HR.

Kami-sama looked over his hands at the small god that was standing in front of him, looking distinctly nervous. He was Ichiro, Kami of Dish Towels, fourth class, Category 1, Unlimited, and he was looking distinctly nervous. He had just screwed up, and he knew it.

"Let me see if I have this right." The MUCH older god said, sighing. "You detected a signal that was similar to the one that manifested in Jusenkyo a thousand years ago, the one that infused the springs with all that black magic." The god nodded. "So, without consulting any of your superiors, you shunted this being off to the original's home universe, then closed the portal permanently behind it?"

The younger god nodded again, nervously. "I… I had heard how much chaos that modification to Jusenkyo had caused, so I… I thought." He stammered.

Kami-sama sighed. "You do know that was one of earth's champions you banished, correct?" He said, slowly. At a noticeable paling from the younger god's face, he continued. "Fortunately, his job on earth had been completed, so you didn't cause too much damage. Unfortunately, banishing a man who defeated a phoenix who was going to subjugate half of china to another dimension is hardly the kind of reward I would normally offer!"

The young Kami flinched back so violently that his wire frame glasses fell several inches down his nose, and Kami-sama continued. "You are reduced to limited status for the next CENTURY, unless that human is somehow returned to this world." He said, with finality.

The younger Kami sighed in relief, staggering out of the all-mighty's office with slightly more confidence than he had come in with. True, Kami-sama wasn't usually a wrathful god, but there were stories.. He shuddered.

Back inside of the office, at his desk, Kami-sama sighed. Saotome hadn't been the best and most righteous mortal out there, but he still wished the boy well, wherever he'd ended up. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew, but talking to L-sama was… a rather annoying experience, to say the least, and quite frankly, she outranked him.

HR.

The Lord of Nightmares gazed down upon the four staffs, smiling as she saw her favorite mortal going about her business. This mortal had provided her years of entertainment, and now was no exception, but there was something coming that would tax her favorite mortal and her party to their limits, and it all had to do with one of the five Mazoku lords.

At the moment, L-sama wasn't too pleased with said lord, since he wanted to blow up one of the four staffs, and it had taken her a good thousand years to craft it correctly, but she wasn't sure that the mortals on the staff could defeat him. She may even have to go down their and sort out the problem herself, which was something she hadn't had to do in centuries.

For a moment, she contemplated the idea of just vaporizing Fibrizo where he stood, but she didn't like such direct interference. Besides, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. Frowning, she concentrated on the problem, absently watching as Lina's group, now including the 'priest,' Xellos, finished up their current adventure.

As she did, she felt a ripple strike the sea of chaos. This was odd, as said sea was VERY hard to get to from any of the four staffs or the outside multiverse, and therefore it interested her. Turning her attention to it, she found a single, solitary Mazoku floating on the waves. Given how its magical aura was fluctuating, it had either gone insane or something catastrophic had happened to it. Interested, L-sama reached out and touched the lone Mazoku. If she'd had eyes in her current form, they would have widened. Yes, this one was interesting… and it just may be what she needed to help her chosen one and her party stop Fibrizo.

With no further hesitation, she began working, reshaping the mass of conflicting magics and life force into a whole again, putting her own unique, twisted sense of humor to work as she molded its form and abilities.

HR.

When Ranma woke, all he could see was blackness. Flailing his arms around, he came into contact with nothing. No ground, not even air to breath. Gasping, he realized that he wasn't suffocating, and in fact, didn't breath at all unless he consciously willed it. "Where… where am I?" He asked, only unsurprised at the presence of sound in empty space because he hadn't paid attention in science class.

"Good, you're awake." Came a soft, female voice from everywhere around the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma looked for its source, but couldn't find it. Frowning he reached out with his Chi senses, and almost had a heart attack at the tremendous aura he felt.

"What… what are you?" He gasped, actually frightened. Not much other than cats could frighten Ranma, but a being with an aura about a million times bigger than Saffron's, that he was sure he hadn't felt one tenth of, did it quite nicely.

"Who I am is unimportant." The female voice said, again from all around Ranma. "All you need know is that I saved you from being torn apart by the… what did your memories call it, Jusenkyo Water."

Ranma frowned, remembering the events of the failed wedding. "Didn't think it'd do that." He shuddered. "Well, erm, thanks." He continued, tentatively, at a loss for what to say.

The female voice actually giggled for a moment, before becoming serious again. "Now, I will send you into the world."

"Huh? So… you fix me up and just send me off?" Ranma asked, his brain desperately trying to catch up to his mouth as he spoke. "Ya don't want anythin in return?"

"The world I send you to is not your own." The woman explained, and continued before Ranma could open his mouth. "I do not know what world you come from, and searching for it would take far more of my time than I am willing to spend. Still, where I send you, you may be able to find a way home."

Ranma nodded in the darkness. Normally, he would have objected to someone saying that they could help him but just didn't feel like it, but the waves of power he could still feel emanating from the void around him stopped that. "Yeah, thanks a lot." He said, just before a soft glow began to permeate the darkness. As he was being enveloped in the glow, the being laughed musically, causing a shiver to go down Ranma's spine.

HR.

In the middle of a forest clearing just outside of a small town, Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova stood in the middle of a magic circle, her formerly immaculate white and brown outfit covered in smudges and bits of refuse. On her face, quite noticeable against her pale skin, were several parallel scratches that had been given to her by a rather angry alleycat when she'd tried to steal its fish.

Looking over the squiggly lines that ran all around her, she smiled. "There, that should finish it!" She said, happily. And now, I'll get my revenge on that monster, Inverse, for destroying my kingdom, and my golem, and my dresses, and all of my money, and…" She started crying for a moment, before forcibly bringing herself back to the hear and now. Clearing her throat, she continued. "Now, I shall cast the summoning spell!" After this, she let off a maniacal laugh that would make Naga or Kodachi proud.

Stopping in her laughter after a few moments, the 'sorceress of Zoamel Gustav' began to speak her incantation. She'd spent days cobbling it together, and was sure it would work. The fact that she was trying to summon a Mazoku that she'd just made up was completely irrelevant to her, of course. "Oh, great and powerful Zoamel Gustav, I, your greatest servant, call upon you! Smite all that stand in the way of the power that you possess! Bring our enemies to their knees! Klatuu, Verada, NECKLACE!!!"

Martina lowered her arms from the wide open posture she'd thrown them into during the chant, frowning. She was pretty sure she'd gotten the last bit wrong, but it didn't matter. For a moment,, she stood and waited. Several birds nearby chirped happily. She waited some more, and a small deer ran out of the woods, across the clearing and to the other side.

Sighing, she stepped out of the middle of the magic circle, and turned her face to the heavens. "Oh, Zoamel Gustav, why haven't you come!" She cried, anguished. As if in answer, a column of red light lanced from the sky, hitting the center of her summoning circle, where she'd just been. "Is… is it working?" She gasped, surprised in spite of herself, as she backed up slightly from the beam. Unfortunately, she didn't back up quickly enough, as the base of the beam erupted into a ball of destructive energy, destroying the scratched runes on the ground and knocking the white and grey clad sorceress back several feet.

"I'm okay…" She mumbled, hauling herself back to her feet. She was about to start brushing the layer of soot that now covered her clothing off, but stopped at what she saw. Sure enough, there was a Mazoku standing in the middle of the crater that had been her summoning circle.

It didn't look much like the Zoamel Gustav she had imagined, but it was there. Its most noticeable features were its eyes, which were glowing slightly red and vertically slitted, and its ears, which tapered to a noticeable point. It looked mostly like a young human male, wearing some form of red, tie secured shirt and loose black pants. On his back was a small pack. "Zoamel Gustav?" She asked, hopefully, causing him to turn his head and look at her. Smiling happily, the battered and burnt woman abruptly fainted.

END.

Okay, how was that? Good? Bad? Ugly? Drop me a review and tell me! Oh, and this hasn't been preread yet, so… sorry for any errors that snuck past me.

Wow, this got so much of a response that I had to continue it, and with the help of my newly acquired Slayers OST, I did! Woot for OSTs! This chapter's kinda slow, but everything's still getting set up, so… yeah. Anyhow.

Misato:Shut up and start the fic, already!

Weebee: Yeah, that. Bye!

Chapter 1, Beginning! On the road again.

Ranma blinked rapidly as the light grew to an extremely intense level, and then turned red. He turned slightly in the beam, wondering what was happening, Before he felt the solidity of ground beneath his feet once again, rather than the nothingness of the place he had been before. Looking down, he saw a star shaped symbol on the ground beneath him, surrounded by the red light. Briefly, he wondered what to do next. that was, until the light exploded out in a circle around him, revealing, all at once, a forest clearing with a large crater in its center. "I guess I'm here…" He muttered, quietly.

"Zoamel Gustav?" Came a breathless, female voice from nearby. This voice wasn't the same as the one he'd heard in the void, so he quickly turned his head to its source.

Standing several feet away, her legs visibly shaking to keep her up, was a very light teal haired woman. She wore an outfit that resembled nothing he'd ever seen, but that looked distressingly like a Bikini with a cape and shoulder guards.

His observation of the girl and her clothing was halted, however, when she abruptly keeled forward. Moving quickly, he grabbed her in his arms to prevent her from hitting the ground. Looking down at her, he saw that her body was covered in cuts, bruises and burns, and her clothes had been ripped in several places. "Guess I'm gunna have ta help her before anythin else." He muttered, reluctantly.

No, he didn't really mind helping someone who was apparently badly injured, but given that this was a scantily clad female, he figured that pain was going to be visited upon him at some point in the near future. Sighing, he lowered her to the ground in a soft looking place, and took his backpack off of his back.

Blinking, he looked at the pack. During the failed wedding, he'd been wearing a tux, and his pack had been upstairs in his room, where he normally kept it. Setting down the pack, he looked down at himself, seeing the red Chinese shirt and black pants he was wearing. "Uh, thanks… whoever you are." He muttered, directing his comment to the person who had helped him and, apparently, given him a set of his clothing and some supplies.

As he reached to the side of the pack where he normally kept his medical supplies, he noticed that there was something in a leather sheath strapped to the side. Setting it aside, he opened the compartment… and found that the first aid supplies had almost all been removed, with the exception of his wrapping gauze, and replaced with tiny bottles. frowning, he took out the wrappings and got to work.

HR.

Several minutes later, Ranma cleared a few branches out of his face, as he looked around. He'd bandaged most of the girl's wounds and burns, but he needed to clean some of them first and hadn't been able to find any water in his pack. He'd heard a stream nearby, so was currently trying to find it. "You'd think I'd be good at findin water when I need it…" He muttered, just as his next step landed on a muddy bank. "Aw, crap!" He yelped, slipping into the river, which had been hidden by heavy overgrowth.

As Jusenkyo did its thing, the red haired martial artist felt a little different. The change seemed to take longer, and she could actually feel things… shifting… this time. It didn't hurt, but it definitely felt strange. 'Is this part of what that woman did ta stop the curse from killin me?" She thought. "Figures she couldn't have cured it."

Sighing, she looked down to the pot in her hands to see that it was full of cool and clean river water, before climbing out and heading back to where she'd left the girl.

HR.

Martina smiled, standing with one foot on Lina Inverse's head, and holding the idle of Zoamel Gustav high. "I have done it! Now, the world is for the taking of Zoamel Gustav!" She cackled.

Beneath her foot, inverse cried pathetically, but she didn't let up her pressure. Yes, she had won, and… ow! She flinched, as something stung her in the arm. It did it several more times, and the vision of her glorious victory over Lina began to fade. "Aw, nooooo!" She whined, and then suddenly, she opened her eyes.

"Are you all right?" Asked a female voice, which was unpleasantly familiar. Letting her vision clear slightly, all she could see was a blurred mop of red hair, and two glowing red eyes looking down at her. "INVERSE!" She shrieked, jolting upright and sending the redhead back a few steps.

"Huh?" The other girl asked, though not quickly enough. Martina had pulled a dagger from somewhere, and thrown it at her. "Hey, what's with you?" The other girl demanded, snatching the flying projectile from the air.

Martina blinked. She was reasonably sure that Lina inverse couldn't do that. Sure, she could have deflected the dagger, but she would have used magic to do it. This blink had also cleared out her eyes of their sleep fog, and she started seeing the differences between her target and Lina. For one, she was much more developed in the chest, and her hair was a slightly darker color.

"Wow, usually people take some time between me helpin them and them tryin to stab me." The redhead grumbled, looking over the silver hilted dagger in interest. "Nice blade, though."

"You… helped me?" Martina asked, before looking down and seeing that several of her burns and cuts had been expertly bandaged. "Oh, I'm sorry." She said, switching from angry and confused to slightly too sweet in an instant. "Did my knife cause any damage? …and… who are you?" Her thoughts were rather muddled at the moment, but she was pretty sure that she was forgetting something important.

"I'm Ranma." The redhead responded, dropping the knife and checking her hand. "I don't think you…" She started, before blinking. "Weird, I didn't feel it." She muttered.

"Didn't feel what?" Martina asked, leaning forward curiously.

"Ranma shrugged, holding up her right hand to show a deep gash along one finger. Strangely, it wasn't bleeding. It was just… there, a break in the skin that had obviously been caused by the knife, but which was actually closing before her eyes. "That's almost like Mazoku healing…" The former princess said, before something clicked in her rather slow running brain. She'd summoned a Mazoku, her beloved Zoamel Gustav, and he'd actually APPEARED! Now, where was he? Whipping her head around in all directions, she searched the clearing quickly.

There was no one there except for her and the girl named Ranma, along with a backpack and a fire with a pot held over it. "Where is he?" She demanded, quickly and excitedly. "Where is the dread Mazoku Zoamel Gustav?!"

Ranma gave her an odd look. She'd heard the strange girl call out that name earlier, but she had no idea who it was. "The who?" She asked.

Martina growled impatiently. "Well, he had black pants, like yours, and a red shirt, like yours, and red, cat slitted eyes, like yours, and…" She trailed off. "You must have chased him away!" She decided, snapping her fingers in discovery. "Why would you do that?"

Ranma looked at the other girl as if she'd lost her mind. "I don't suppose you mean a black haired guy with a pigtail, do ya?" She asked, tentatively.

Martina nodded. "Now where did you take him? Before I have to… put a curse on you or something!" She said, having somehow retrieved the dagger, and waving it around menacingly.

Ranma sighed. Yeah, this was going to be one of those days. "Okay," She started, slowly. "I'll tell you about him… but you wanna tell me who you are, first?"

"Hmm, that sounds like a fair exchange." Martina said. "All right! I am Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova, former princess of the Zoana kingdom and high priestess of the mighty Zoamel Gustav!" She yelled, jumping up and striking a pose. Unfortunately, she forgot her injuries, and quickly fell to the ground with a sweat drop on her head and tears welling in her eyes.

"…Right…" Ranma said, a sweat drop of her own dominating the back of her head. "Well, to answer your question about the guy with the pigtail, it's me." Martina blinked several times, before Ranma continued. "I've got a water triggered curse, and I got splashed when I was getting the water to clean out your wounds."

Martina narrowed her eyes. "Can you prove this?" She demanded.

Ranma nodded, getting up and walking over to the fire she'd started, and checking the water temperature. Although it was steaming, it felt only slightly warm when she put a finger into it. Shrugging, she poured it over her head. Strangely, not only did it feel good to turn back into a guy, but the water itself felt nice as it sloshed against his skin.

"You… you…" Martina stuttered. "What?" She finally squeaked, totally confused.

Ranma frowned, deciding that he'd better explain.

HR.

In the shadows of a group of trees, a purple haired man looked on at the human girl who was interacting with the Mazoku. Xellos had felt the return of one of his subordinates that he'd thought dead during the war of the monster's fall, and decided to see what exactly was going on before going back to observe Lina. After all, she'd just blown up half of Atlas City, so he doubted that she could get into any more trouble… for a few hours.

This Mazoku he was seeing was not the one he'd expected. For one, he seemed more powerful than the one he remembered, and his appearance was radically different. For another, he had just helped heal a human, and was talking to her. Granted, some oddballs, like Xellos himself, liked to help the occasional human just to see what they'd do, but this was different.

This would take some observation before he rushed in and actually talked to this new Mazoku. After all, Information was Xellos' favorite commodity.

HR.

"So… you're not the dread Mazoku Zoamel Gustav?" Martina asked, her lip quivering slightly.

Ranma shook his head. "Sorry." He muttered, wondering why someone would WANT him to be an evil demon of some kind.

"But… I laid out the summoning circle perfectly, and you are a Mazoku, and…" Martina trailed off, thinking.

"I'm a what?" Ranma asked, confused.

"You're a Mazoku. You have the evil red eyes, and pointed ears, and your wounds don't bleed, I'm guessing unless someone uses a weapon that effects the astral plain, anyways, and you have at least some magic."

"Wait, pointed ears? Red eyes?" Ranma asked, reaching a hand up to feel his ears. Sure enough, they tapered to a point at the ends, and were slightly longer and wider than they had once been. He contemplated how to look at his eyes, before Martina pulled a mirror out of nowhere and handed it to him.

Holding it up to his face, he saw that she had been telling the truth about his eyes. They were also slitted like a cat's, but for some reason that didn't bother him as much as he was sure it should. 'What the hell happened to me?' He thought, as Martina kept rambling on about Mazoku, and he paid attention with half an ear. After a moment, he interrupted her. "How do you know so much about these Mazoku, anyhow?"

She sniffed. "Well, as Zoamel Gustav's most loyal follower, I must know all I can learn of his kind." She said, proudly.

Ranma just groaned. Laying on the ground, he began to think. He'd been fundamentally changed somehow, when he'd been transported here. Martina had a point that how his knife wound had acted just wasn't normal, and he had certainly never seen those eyes or ears before. consentrating, he looked inside of himself for his Chi reserve. He shot bolt upright when he found that there was nothing there. No, that wasn't entirely accurate. There was something there, but it wasn't Chi. It felt like raw, undiluted darkness, and he felt as though he should be terrified of it… but he wasn't. Reaching into his new well of power, he tried to condense a ball of power out of it for a Moko-Takabisha, but couldn't get a grip on it.

Flopping back onto the ground, he cursed. "Great, so my body's different, my Chi is gone, and I'm in a strange world with a girl who reminds me a little of Kodachi. This is a perfect day." He muttered.

Just as Ranma said that, Martina yelled. "I've got it!"

"What do you got?" Ranma asked, rolling over to face her.

"Zoamel Gustav must have sent you, one of his lesser minions, to assist me! He's far too important to bother visiting himself, even for me! You will help me defeat Inverse!" Martina said, smiling happily.

"I… will?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

"Yes, together we shall defeat that evil sorceress Lina Inverse, and avenge my destroyed Kingdom! That is what the great Zoamel Gustav wishes!"

"This is gunna be a LONG day." Ranma muttered, but considered. Martina, despite her eccentricities, seemed to know a lot more about this world than he did. After all, better a Kuno reject than no help, right? Besides, if this Lina Inverse had really destroyed an entire kingdom for no reason, it sounded like she needed to be stopped… though he'd be sure to get her side of the story before attacking, given that he thought Martina may be a little unreliable. "Fine, I'll help you." He said, resigned.

"YAY!" Martina said, producing victory fans from nowhere and waving them around in the air, happily. "Now, since Lina was hired by the King of Saillune to destroy my kingdom, that's where we should head first, then we'll…" Martina started, giddily.

Ranma left her to make her own plans, and went over to see what else was in his pack, besides the mysterious bottles. He figured she may be done ranting by the time he got back.

First, he checked the sheath that he'd set next to the pack. Inside it was a European style short sword. He looked at it quizzically. He normally didn't use weapons, but it would at least be handy for cutting away forest brush, and if he needed money he could sell it. Noting that it had a belt to wrap around his waist and rest at his side, he smirked.

Putting the sword aside, he dug through his pack. Most of what was in it was pretty standard, a tent, some dried and salted food supplies, and cooking supplies. Near the bottom, however, he found two things of interest. There was a sack of coins, what looked like four or five hundred little gold ones, on one side. He wasn't sure about the money system in this world, but was pretty sure that was a hefty chunk of change.

The other item was a large, yellow book. On the spine was written "Read this or else!" in bright, red Kanji. Shrugging, he brought the glossy yellow tome out from the inside of the bag. On the front was a black sign being held up by a white hand. The sign read "Black Magic for Dummies, by Lorda Nigtmar."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched, but he slid the book back into his pack rather than throwing it a few hundred feet. If that strange woman had given him the book and told him to read it, he'd better do it, especially since all of his Chi seemed to be gone, and anything to replace it would be good. Black Magic didn't sound terribly reassuring, but he shrugged this off for the moment. He'd have to think about all of this later, when he had a better grasp on the more immediate situation.

"So, Are you ready to go?" Martina asked, popping up from behind him suddenly.

Ranma only resisted the urge to jump out of his skin through force of will. "Yeah, I'm ready." He said, picking up the pack and slinging it over his shoulder, and then picking up the sheathed sword. "So, where's this Saillune place, anyhow?"

"It's that way." Martina said, then frowned. "…I think…"

Ranma growled, but started walking in the direction that Martina had indicated. If worst came to worst, he could always navigate to the closest town and get directions or a map.

HR.

As the two traveling companions, one highly reluctant, walked away from the clearing, Xellos faded completely into sight from his hiding place. Yes, this could get interesting.

HR.

On her way out of Atlas City, Lina inverse abruptly sneezed.

"Are you getting a cold, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, concerned.

"Nah, it was probably nothing." The sorceress dismissed, casually.

END.

What, there's a "For Dummies" book for everything ELSE, why not black magic?

Note on spellings: I'm using a resource for spellings and other info that's not easy to find in-series. It's called Inverse dot org. all spellings of slayers related words come from their.

Also, I'd sort of appreciate it if, in future, people don't respond to each-other's reviews. The review page isn't a message board, and I DO have a forum. Sorry if I sounded harsh, I really don't mind much but it is sorta distracting and fudges the review numbers. (EG:Someone reviewed twice, once anon and once logged in.) Shutting up now.

Please R&R.

Hello Folks. This time, everyone's favorite trickster makes an annoying appearance, and a fight scene, as ineptly described as my usual. (Weebee sighs.) Anyhow, on with the show! Hope you don't hate it. :)

Chapter 2, Control! Darkness rising.

"What do ya mean we've been goin the wrong way?" Ranma asked, his eye twitching spasmodically.

The man, a shop keeper in a small town that Ranma and Martina had just entered, laughed nervously at the sight of the red-eyed man glaring in annoyance. "Well, if you keep going the way you were, you'd hit Lyzeille in a couple of days." He said, pointing down the town's main street in the same direction the two had been walking.

"Lyzeille?" Martina asked, shocked. "That IS the completely wrong direction!"

Ranma groaned. "You got a map we can borrow?" He asked, turning back to the shop keeper.

"Well, I do sell them for 7 silver pieces each." He offered, pulling a large box full of scrolls from under the counter.

Ranma grumbled, but fished out one of the gold pieces he'd transferred from his pack to his pocket before heading out. "Is this enough?" He asked, laying it down on the counter.

The store clerk's eyes bugged out. "Y… yes, that's enough." He stammered, quickly scooping up the gold colored object. Ranma figured that he was probably being swindled, but was too annoyed to care.

"Can I have the map, now?" He asked, holding out one hand. The shop keeper nodded quickly, handing it over and returning to examining the gold coin. Turning away from the shop stall, the pigtailed martial artist looked at his companion. "I thought you knew where you were going?" He drawled.

"Well, I did… I must have been turned around during the confusion while summoning you, that's all." Martina said, sniffing.

"Okay." Ranma sighed, unfolding the map and looking it over. "According to this thing, we go that way to head to Saillune."

"But can't we stop for a while at an Inn?" Martina asked. "We've been walking for hours, and the sun's almost down. You know that it's more possible to encounter bandits at night."

Ranma looked up to see that the sun was still a good bit above the horizon, but sighed. Even if he wasn't feeling tired at all, he didn't feel like retracing about five miles of road right now. "All right, we'll go to an inn and get something to eat." He said. "But you're gunna have ta tell me the exchange rate 'round here before we get there."

"Yay!" Martina yelled, happily.

Ranma blinked. Despite the greenish haired girl's claims, he was finding it increasingly hard to believe that she was the high priest of anything, let alone an incredibly powerful demon. "Let's go." He said, walking off. He was pretty sure he'd seen a restaurant with some rooms for rent around here somewhere.

HR.

Laying in her bed at the Inn that Ranma had paid for, Martina smiled. Life had suddenly taken a major turn upwards for her in the last day. Ever since Lina Inverse had destroyed her entire kingdom, she'd been wandering the streets, trying to survive from day to day and figure out a way to get revenge. Now, though…

Now, she had a companion to travel with, sent by Zoamel Gustav himself, and the companion was pretty cute. She blushed, and shook her head. He was a Mazoku, which meant that he was strictly off limits for… that, but still, he had enough money to keep a roof over her head during the hunt, and he'd promised to help in the defeat of Lina. Not, of course, that she needed help with the might of Zoamel Gustav on her side.

Sighing happily, she let herself drift off to sleep, dreams of vanquishing Lina mingling with… other ones. She didn't hear the thump on the roof.

HR.

Later, Ranma sat on the Inn's roof, the yellow book that he'd found in his pack laying next to him. He'd had dinner and tried to go to bed about an hour before, but there was something wrong. For one, he wasn't really hungry. Yes, the food was good, but it didn't seem to fill him up at all.

After eating a portion so small that most of the Tendos would have thought the world was ending if they'd seen it, he'd gone upstairs and proceeded to stair at a roof for about forty minutes.

"What's happening to me?" He asked, looking out over the town. The town itself was odd, having very few signs of modern technology, but he'd expected something similar when he'd found the gold coins and potions in his pack rather than paper money and disinfectants. No, the really worrying part was what had happened to his own form.

Picking up the book, he opened it and began to read, hoping that it would shed some light on what was going on.

It did, at least a little. The first chapter actually dealt with what he had become, and it was… disturbing reading. What it all boiled down to was that he was now a sentient collection of evil energy and magic. He didn't need to eat or sleep, and he had access to some pretty strong powers once he learned to control them.

This, in itself, was extremely distressing. From the description, he sounded like a demon, something he and his father would have volunteered to banish back before he'd come here. Well, something his father would have volunteered to banish, then forced him to actually do the work.

The part that really got to him, though, was how he was to replace food and drink. These… Mazoku, as the book and Martina both called them, drew energy from human suffering. It wasn't Chi vampirism like Miss Hinako had, but…

"Hmm, what are you reading?"

"Huh?" Ranma yelped, spinning around on the spot to see a shadowed figure standing at the peak of the Inn's roof. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"Oh, just an old friend." The figure said, stepping forward. Even in the dark, Ranma could make out the figures features when it got closer to him. He wasn't sure how, but thought it may have had something to do with the way his eyes had been changed. The man had dark hair, which shone with a purplish glow where the small amount of moonlight hit it. It was also wearing some form of robes, and wielding a staff.

"What do you mean, an old friend?" Ranma asked, his eyes narrowing. "I don't know anyone on this world other than Martina."

"Hmm, on this world eh?" The figure asked. "Interesting."

Ranma winced. He had a feeling that he'd just told this guy way more than he intended. "Look. You gunna tell me who you are, or are ya gunna leave?"

The man smiled. "Only those two options? Well then, I suppose I should tell you… that my name is a secret."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched, and he face faulted onto the roof. Getting up, he shot forward and grabbed the man by the front of his cloak. "Listen buddy, I'm not havin a good day, all right?"

The man's smile got wider, and his already closed eyes seemed to squeeze closed more tightly, as if he was holding back laughter. "All right, I'll tell you my name." He said, right before fading from Ranma's grasp. "It's Xellos." He finished, reappearing several feet away.

Ranma stumbled forwards, with the weight of Xellos no longer bracing him, but quickly regained balance. "So, what do ya want?" He demanded, now visibly annoyed.

"You're not very polite, are you?" Xellos asked, causing Ranma's eye to twitch. "But to answer your question, I felt your arrival here, and wanted to see what was happening. After all, it's not often that a rather high level Mazoku just appears from nowhere."

"So, you're a Mazoku?" Ranma asked, now actually kind of curious.

"I never said THAT." Xellos replied, sounding hurt.

"I can sense your aura." Ranma replied. "You're a Mazoku."

The purple haired man clapped. "So I am! Good show!" He said, almost happily. "Now that you know that I'm 'Xellos the Mazoku,' and I know that you're 'The new guy from another world,' aren't we better friends?"

"My name's Ranma Saotome." The pigtailed Mazoku snapped, getting increasingly annoyed with his late night visitor. Distantly, he wondered if this guy had ever trained in anything goes insult tactics. If he did, he was better at it than Ranma.

"I'm glad to meet you, Ranma Saotome." Xellos said. "Now, what was this you were reading?" Scooping up the book, the robed man read over a few pages. "Hmm, Black magic for dummies? Interesting title." He mused. "Judging from this, I assume you haven't been alive for long."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking in confusion.

"I mean you haven't been a Mazoku long. You probably haven't eaten, poor thing." Xellos said, clicking his tongue the way a doting mother would.

"Well, I…" Ranma said, off-balance. He was stopped as Xellos grabbed him by the arm. "Wha?"" He asked.

"I know a really nice place to get some food." His visitor explained, before Ranma felt a twisting, shifting sensation. This wasn't like his curse. It was more like he'd been pulled backwards out of reality, then shoved back into it in a different spot.

"Urk…" The black haired martial artist said. His face would have turned green, if he'd still had a stomach to be sick to. "That didn't feel too good."

"You get used to it." Xellos said, smiling innocently.

Ranma just grumbled, before looking around his new surroundings. Xellos had teleported them onto the edge of another rooftop, overlooking an empty space at the outskirts of the town. In the empty clearing, there were several tents set up. "Why'd you bring me here?" He asked, glaring back at the other man.

"Well, these are a group of bandits." Xellos explained. "The lowest of humans."

"Bandits?" Ranma asked, confused. Looking closer, he saw that there were several men with nasty looking swords sitting outside of the tents. All of them looked pretty disreputable, and at least one of the blades was wet with blood. "Did they just kill someone?"

"That's generally what bandits do." Xellos said, shrugging. "Not a very fun pastime, if you ask me…. Especially with all those mages and swordsmen running around." For some reason, the purple haired man's face broke into a wide grin at this.

Ranma growled. "Why did you bring me here? To stop them?" He asked.

"Well, you can do that if you'd like." Xellos said, shrugging.

"That doesn't seem all that demonic of you." Ranma replied, trying to be bitingly sarcastic. It fell flat, since Xellos didn't seem to notice.

He shrugged. "Being evil's pretty boring, actually. Plus, you're likely to get killed by someone eventually."

Ranma nodded, glad to hear this comment. Xellos may have been tremendously annoying, but he didn't seem to be a bad guy. "You coming?" He asked.

The other Mazoku shook his head. "I think I'll watch." He said, simply. Ranma frowned, but then nodded. He doubted a guy in priest's robes could fight very well. Then again, he wasn't sure that he could fight very well without his Chi, but he had read in the book that he would be able to heal any physical injury.

Letting his Chi sense expand over the group of bandits, he couldn't feel anything strange. He'd felt the auras of a few white and shamanic mages that he'd passed on the road to this town, and he couldn't feel any magic down there. He did, however, feel a large amount of something… dark. He wasn't sure what it was, but it made some part of him, one that hadn't existed until earlier this day, react.

Shuddering, he tried to ignore that feeling, and leapt. He would have to test his new fighting ability eventually, and stopping a group of bandits was as good a place to start as any.

As he landed, he brought one hand down on the top of one of the guards' heads, sending him into deep unconsciousness. The other two guards looked over, seeing the new form in their midst. Ranma managed to silence one of them quickly with a punch to the jaw, but the third managed to let out an alert.

That, of course, was when all hell broke loose.

HR.

On the roof, Xellos watched in interest as Ranma tore into the bandit gang. The boy had a sword sheathed at his hip, but didn't draw it. He seemed to prefer fighting hand to hand, and knocking his opponents unconscious. Normally, this would annoy Xellos, but given the boy's status and possible origin, it was both understandable and amusing.

"I wonder how long your code will hold?" He mused, as the newly born Mazoku kicked a large bandit with a battle-axe in the chest, sending him flying back into the ground with a tremendous crash.

Reaching out, the Mazoku gathered in wisps of the bandits' auras. He smiled as he saw that they were gradually turning from annoyance and anger into fear.

Down on the ground, Ranma was feeling this change as well, and instinctively gathering the energy that was being released. It felt like such a rush that he was getting light headed. He only snapped back to reality when someone's sword buried itself in his side. Growling in annoyance, he reached down to his own sword's sheath, bringing the blade up and slashing viciously with it.

He stopped in shock when he saw the bandit's arm separate from his shoulder, dropping to the ground with a thump. "Gah!" The huge man screamed, falling to the earth and clutching at his shoulder. The other bandits stopped as well, before one of them walked up to Ranma.

"You… you chopped off Bartley's arm!" He yelled, angrily.

"I…" Ranma said, unsure of what to do. The man who had spoken was large, both tall and broad, and he had a bandana with a symbol of a glairing demonic face on it.

"I, as the leader of the fighting demons bandit gang, will not forgive that!" He boomed, drawing an immense sword from over one shoulder.

Ranma's mind was still running in circles. One part was saying that the taste of Bartley's pain was so good, while the other was screaming that he wasn't supposed to injure an opponent that badly, at least not if he didn't have to. He was pulled out of this state of confusion when the gang leader's sword swung at his legs. Jumping up, he landed on the blade easily and brought one foot down hard, breaking the man's fingers.

The gang leader dropped his weapon, screaming and clutching his hand, before Ranma walked up to him and grabbed him by the hem of his tattered vest. Looking into his eyes, the young Mazoku felt fear, anger and pain washing over him from every direction. It was all he could do to resist inflicting torture on this man to increase the output.

"Go." He said, softly. "Run, take your friend to a hospital, and turn yourselves in. Never commit another crime, steal another coin, or hurt another human being as long as you live. If you do, I'll know." He hissed, the amount of control he had to exert over his own impulses making his words clipped and harsh. "You got that?"

The leader nodded rapidly.

"Good." Ranma said, pushing him back to land on the ground, laying on his back. Seeing that the man wasn't moving, he growled. "GO!" He yelled, in as loud a voice as he could. All of the bandits quickly obliged, four coming back quickly to retrieve their petrified leader and heavily wounded comrade.

Looking down at the sword he'd used during the last bit of the fight, the young martial artist turned Mazoku glared at the blood that still covered part of the blade. Bringing his arm back, he threw the sword as hard as he could, burying it in the ground up to the hilt. Panting for breath that he didn't need, he heard the sound of clapping hands. Turning, he saw that Xellos was still standing on the edge of the roof, clapping.

The martial artist looked up at the older Mazoku. "You knew this was gunna happen, didn't you?" He asked, angrily.

"Well, I thought you were going to kill them all rather than letting them go." Xellos said, shrugging. "They have killed, injured or ruined hundreds, after all."

Ranma stopped, tempted to let that justify what he'd done, but shook it off. "I lost control." He muttered.

Xellos just shrugged. "so you did." He said, simply. Ranma was about to ask what he meant by that, when the other Mazoku smirked, stepped backwards, and disappeared.

Blinking, Ranma looked around the darkened area. "Wait…" He said, his dark thoughts lifting for a moment. "Where the hell am I, anyhow?" Grumbling, he left the former bandit camp, in search of the Inn where Martina and all of his stuff were.

END.

Next chapter coming soon, I hope… if I didn't screw up this one too bad.

Chapter 3! Enjoy, and please leave a review. That's about all I can say.

Chapter 3, DAMN! That's gotta hurt!

Ranma looked up at the Inn, just as the sun was cresting the horizon. He'd spent most of the night wandering the streets, trying to get a handle on what had happened during the fight. He still hadn't managed it, though.

Locating the room he'd rented, he began climbing. Unfortunately, without his Chi, he couldn't leap incredibly high anymore, and he hadn't figured out how to fly yet. As he hauled himself over the window ledge and into the room, he saw a very startled Martina looking back at him, still in the process of slipping on the top of her outfit. "Erm…" He said, unsure.

Scrambling to his feet, he looked around to verify that this, in fact, wasn't his bedroom. After doing so, he braced for the impact. After a few moments, it hadn't come. Cracking open the eyes that he'd closed instinctively, he saw the green haired girl blushing deeply, still holding the shoulder pad and attached strap that she hadn't finished slipping on yet.

"Oh, Ranma…" She finally said. "I didn't know that Mazoku were into this sort of thing. Of course, if you want it, I suppose I won't say no." After that, she began to lower the pad.

Ranma's eyes popped wide. "Huh?" He asked, backing up. "No, that's not what I.. Urk!" He yelped, catching his knees on the ledge of the window. Flailing rapidly for a moment, gravity won and sent him tilting backwards. 'Aw, crap.' He thought, just before he fell out, landing on his head one floor below.

"Ow…" He muttered, falling forward. Truthfully, it didn't hurt, but it was the principle of the thing. Pulling himself to his feet again, he dusted his clothes off. "Yeah, she's way too much like Kodachi… or Shampoo."

HR.

About twenty minutes later, Ranma had managed to climb up into the right room, and looked around to see that his backpack was, indeed, sitting in one corner. As he caught a glimpse of it, he saw the yellow book of black magic laying on top of it, a note attached. On the note, in a neat, elegant hand, was written "I was going to steal it, but it turns out I couldn't read past the first page. Xellos."

Ranma growled, opening the pack to put the book back and knocking something else to the floor with a soft thump. Looking over, he saw the sword he had thrown into the ground during the fight. On its handle was another note. "Oh, and you dropped this." Yeah, Xellos was annoying, all right. Sighing, he studied the sword. It had been cleaned of blood, and shone enough to reflect his own red eyes in its blade. Still, he knew that he'd used it to cut a man's arm off the night before. Unfortunately, throwing the weapon away was meaningless. HE had decided to inflict the damage, not the tool he'd used to do it.

Grumbling at this unpleasant truth, he slid the weapon back into its sheath, throwing his pack over his shoulders. It was going to be a long day, mostly full of walking. He'd have plenty of opportunity to think about what had happened, especially since the trip to Saillune was probably going to take almost a week.

Walking out of the room, he bumped into Martina coming out of her own, now fully dressed. "Oh, hello Ranma." She said, smiling.

"Erm, hi." He said, looking away from her. "You wanna go downstairs and get some breakfast?"

Martina pondered, then nodded. Following the rather relieved young Mazoku down the stares, she noticed something. "Ranma, how did your shirt get slashed like that?" She asked.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking at her in confusion.

Martina didn't say anything, just pointing at the long tear in the side of his silken red shirt, running straight across his left side. "Oh, that." He said, frowning. "Well, there were these bandits last night, and…" He shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it.

"You fought an entire group of bandits?" Martina asked, gasping. She'd known that the champion Zoamel Gustav had sent her would be powerful, but Ranma had just proven it.

"Well, yeah." Ranma said, shrugging and still trying to avoid the subject.

"That's amazing! Most of those gangs are twenty or thirty men strong, and you came back with just a cut to your shirt! Well, you are a…" Martina started, but was stopped with a quick hand from Ranma over her mouth.

"I get the feelin that Mazoku ain't too popular. Ya mind not blurting that out in a crowded Inn?" He hissed, annoyed.

"Oh, right." She said, sheepishly. Unfortunately, since Ranma's hand was covering her mouth, it came out as "Mphmph." Getting the general idea, the pigtailed martial artist released his hold, and the two sat at one of the tables in the Inn's main room, waiting for breakfast. Ranma ordered a small amount for appearances, and Martina ordered a full sausage and egg breakfast.

"Well, if your shirt's ripped, why don't you change into another one?" The girl asked, after finishing her first scrambled egg.

"I, erm, don't have any other clothes in my pack." Ranma said, sheepishly. He knew that Mazoku were supposed to be able to change their clothing at will, and even manifest weapons, but that was yet another skill that he hadn't figured out yet.

"Well then, we should go pick some items up for you!" Martina said, cheerfully. As she said this, Ranma suddenly got a major sinking feeling at the gleeful look in her eyes.

HR.

"You've got to be kidding." Ranma mumbled, standing and looking at himself in a mirror. The full suit of black and grey armor didn't look all that bad, but he found it very hard to move quickly, and it increased his weight by a good fifty pounds.

"You don't like it?" Martina asked. "I thought a knight in shining armor needed some armor." She said, pouting.

Ranma's eye twitched. "A what?" He asked, before sighing. "Never mind, I'm gunna go get this thing off."

"But what's wrong with it?" The worshiper of Zoamel Gustav asked, annoyed.

"Can't move, and what happens when it rains?" Ranma asked. At that, he was overtaken with a mental image of his girl side, hanging by the shoulders from the armor, which had all fallen together into one solid mass.

"Oh…" Martina said. Well, then how about this?" She asked, pulling out a long, black mage's robe.

"Nope." Ranma said, shaking his head.

Behind the two, the store clerk was looking at them strangely. Some of the comments he'd heard were… odd, to say the least, and who was Zoamel Gustav, anyhow?

"Are you nearly done yet?" He asked, after clearing his throat.

Ranma glared over at the portly man. He wanted to snap "I wish," but didn't particularly want to hurt Martina's feelings. Though she was a little odd, she hadn't tried to poison him like Kodachi, and she'd even let him off for accidentally barging in on her while she was changing, though the offer she'd made still embarrassed him. Seeing something behind the store owner, he moved in the suit of heavy armor. "Hmm…" He said. "Just a sec, Martina."

HR.

"How's this?" Ranma asked, about five minutes later. He'd just exited the dressing room, wearing a set of light grey pants, and a dark red tunic that secured on the left. He'd traded his slippers, which had gotten pretty worn over the trip to town, for a pair of soft leather boots, and wore his bracers over his arms.

Martina put a finger to her lips, studying him carefully. "Hmm, well you look very handsome in that, Ranma." She said. "Just a few additions."

Ranma blinked, as she dragged him deeper into the store. "Wait, huh?" He demanded. "What's goin on?"

His question was quickly answered, as she came upon a black cloak, and handed it to him. "Put this on." She directed.

HR.

After another five minutes of argument and pleading from Martina, (Who knew she could do the puppy dog eyes technique?) Ranma found himself buying several sets of the clothes he had picked out, as well as the boots, a cloak to keep out the rain and a set of light leather armor to wear over his shirt. The armor was, of course, black, and left only the collar and arms of the red shirt visible, but since it was light he found that it would accommodate the change pretty well.

"There, are we done?" He asked, looking over at the light green haired woman in annoyance.

"Mmhmm." She said, smiling and laughing happily. "We can get going now."

"All right." Ranma grumbled. The Inn plus the clothes he had bought had cost him about thirty gold pieces, and he was starting to regret not going through the bandit camp for loot the night before. Unfortunately, by now the authorities had probably descended upon the place and taken everything. "Let's head for Saillune and find this 'evil sorceress' of yours." He said, walking down the main street.

Now, with Ranma decked out in full 'warrior' gear, and with Martina in her usual outfit, they actually looked like a real traveling party, and drew quite a lot of looks as they proceeded through the streets. They didn't really notice, though.

As they passed through the outer fringes of the city, they saw a rather odd sight. Near the small headquarters of the town guard, there was a line of about twenty-five scruffy looking people, all standing patiently. The lead guardsman was talking to their leader, who was bowing and nodding frantically.

"What's happening over there?" Martina asked, gesturing.

Ranma looked, and saw the group's leader flinch visibly when he noticed him. "Nothing." He said, returning the bandit leader's look with one of his own as the two walked past. The man redoubled his efforts to convince the guardsman to lock him up for a very long time, preferably somewhere far away.

HR.

Over the next few days, not much happened. The two companions continued in their travel to Saillune, and Ranma read more of the book that Lorda, or whoever she was, had given him. He hadn't seen that other Mazoku, Xellos, in that time, and was grateful for it.

Actually, though he wanted to find a way back home, hopefully soon, he was finding life on the road again kind of enjoyable… though Martina didn't seem to agree. They had had to camp out rather than sleeping at an Inn a couple of times, and the fuss she'd raised about sleeping in a tent was… irritating.

This morning was one of those on which the two had been forced to camp out, and Ranma sat in female form, still reading her book in the shadow of the tent where Martina slept.

Not being able to sleep was an inconvenience, but it also let her train and hunt for food without impacting their travel time during the days. As for training, she hadn't gotten too far. So far, the first three chapters had all been explaining theory on what she was, and how her ability to absorb and read emotions worked.

Yes, it was useful information, and she understood the idea of learning the basics before moving on to offensive abilities, but she wanted to somehow be able to keep up with that smug bastard, Xellos. Even so, the notes on her energy absorbing powers were useful, and had even given her an alternative way of feeding than pissing someone off or scaring them half to death.

It wasn't pleasant, but she could absorb normal life energy, and sift out the darker elements. It was sort of like drinking river water from just downstream from a toxic waist dump, as she'd tried it using Martina as a source the day before, but it would work in an emergency. As she turned the first page of chapter 4, she heard the sound of Martina stirring in the tent and closed the book.

"Better start getting the fire ready." She muttered, stowing the book in her pack and getting up. Picking up the firewood she'd set aside after the rain storm the night before, she placed it in the pit she'd dug, and concentrated on it.

Digging into the dark energy that made her up, she drew a tiny amount of it forward and held it at the end of her finger, directing it outward. Obligingly, a tiny flame popped into existence on the end of her finger, and she touched it to the wood.

"Good morning, Ranma." Martina said, from the entrance of the tent.

"Morning." Ranma replied, not turning around. It took the green haired girl several moments to wake up in the morning, and the little redhead knew that if she turned around, she'd see her traveling companion half-naked. While that wasn't a clobbering offence with Martina, and even if it was she wouldn't feel the pain, she didn't want to deal with the problems it would cause.

Several minutes later, when Ranma had a crackling fire and a pot of rice cooking merrily on top of it, Martina immerged in her usual outfit, slumping on a log on the other side of the fire. "It's mornings like this that I wonder if my quest to destroy Inverse is really worth it." She complained, staring with blurry eyes at her red haired traveling companion.

Ranma just shrugged, looking up at the cloudy sky. "Well, we should be in Saillune tonight." She said, trying to be reassuring.

"Why do you have to be in that form this morning?" Martina asked, frowning. "I preferred your other one."

Ranma snorted. "So do I." She said, knowing that Martina was just looking for things to complain about since she'd been sleeping in a sleeping bag rather than a bed the night before. "But it's gunna rain later, so I may as well not waste the water."

Martina nodded, then turned her gaze to the pot of rice. "Is it done yet?" She asked.

Ranma just sighed.

HR.

Later that morning, Martina was in much better spirits, and the two were making decent time towards Saillune. That was, of course, until Ranma saw a couple of strangely clad people fiddling with something at the side of the road. "Hey, what are they doing?" The pigtailed Mazoku asked, pointing at the two hooded figures, who seemed to be pulling a wire across the path.

Martina studied them. "They could be bandits, waiting to ambush someone." She said, unsure. "There aren't very many of them, though."

"Well, I guess we should stop them." Ranma said, diverting her course to intercept the two cloaked individuals. "Hey, you!" She called, loudly.

One of them looked up, saw the pigtailed martial artist coming and cursed gutturally. It looked to the other, whispered something, and the two stood. Ranma braced for a fight, but much to her surprise, the two glowed brightly, and then vanished.

"That was damned weird." She said, studying what they were doing. The two had a trip wire almost completely set up, and on the other end were several large barrels of gun powder.

"What is it?" Martina asked, looking over Ranma's shoulder as the redhead carefully unhooked the trip wire from the flint and steel assembly that would have set off the powder. "Got me." She mumbled, unsure. "But this is a lot of explosives."

"EXPLOSIVES?!" Martina yelled, jumping back into the middle of the road in one leap, and causing Ranma's eyebrow to lift. She didn't know she was capable of that.

"Don't worry, they've been disarmed." She said, reassuringly. Martina sighed in relief… right before she was run down by a man on a white horse.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, as the horseman pulled to a quick stop and leapt off of his steed.

"Are you all right, miss?" He asked, in a gravely voice, reaching down with one meaty hand to offer Martina assistance up.

She just groaned.

"Erm, she's been run over by a horse, I don't think she's getting up for a while." Ranma drawled.

"Oh, well I'm very sorry about that!" The man said, truly seeming to mean that. "I had to leave Saillune quickly, and wasn't paying attention to the road ahead of me."

"What, you a criminal or something, running from the guards?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow. She doubted that very much, given that the guy had stopped to help Martina, but it was about all She could think of.

"No! I would never do that!" The man said, horrified. "I'm prince Philionel, king of Saillune!"

"P… prince Philionel?" Martina gasped, from her prone position on the ground.

"Why yes, I'm glad you're awake. Are you all right?" Phil asked again, returning his attention to the lighter haired girl.

"I'll kill you!" Martina screamed, withdrawing her dagger and hopping to her feet.

Ranma sweat dropped. "Maybe I was wrong about that not getting up thing." She mused, shocked.

END.

And for all of you who wanted to know where in the timeline it is, I hope this answers your question.

If not, then Slayers NEXT, a few days before Episode 8.

Sorry this chapter's so short, but I was running the risk of burning out when I finished it. If you've never experienced brain lock as a result of pushing yourself to write, you've never written an exam, for one thing, and you're an extremely lucky individual… AND, with that out of the way, I hope this one doesn't suck, even though it's mostly setup.

Don't forget to R+R!

Chapter 4, Enemies! Someone wants prince Phil dead?!

Ranma blinked in confusion as Martina leapt forward, gleaming knife blade in hand. The larger, though not taller man raised one hand, catching her blade in it and disarming her expertly. "Now, Miss. I know that running over you with my horse wasn't the most polite thing to do, but do you really think you have to kill me for it?" He asked,

"That's not what I want to kill you for, you… you… Inverse employer!" Martina screamed.

'Inverse employer?' Ranma thought, confused. That had to be the least potent insult she had ever heard. "Hey, Martina. You wanna calm down and explain, or what?" She asked, pretty sure that the request would be futile.

Oddly, Martina did immediately seem to calm down, turning to her pigtailed traveling companion. "Well, Ranma. Lina Inverse was summoned to my kingdom by the representative of Saillune. HE is the king of Saillune! He must have been the one who sent her!"

"He's… the king?" Ranma asked, looking doubtfully at the heavy-set man in the white clothes and cloak.

"Yes, I am. Prince Philionel, King of Saillune." He said, nodding. "Though I don't know anything about sending Lina after you. May I ask your name, miss?"

Ranma winced, waiting for Martina's usual long introduction, though the girl looked distinctly nervous. "Something wrong, Martina?" She asked, causing the girl to jump slightly.

"Martina?" Philionel asked. You wouldn't be Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova, the daughter of the king of Zoana, would you?" He asked.

Martina nodded, shooting a nervous glance between Ranma and the mustached man. "Um, yes."

Ranma narrowed her eyes. There was something strange going on here, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Well, that's great!" She heard the man named prince Philionel say, happily. "You can tell me how my little Amelia's doing! I know that she met up with her friends after visiting your kingdom, so I'm sure you would know!"

"Well, I…" Martina said, before getting angry. "Her FRIENDS blew up my entire kingdom! They even destroyed the army's supply yards, and our golem!"

"They did?" The prince said, looking distinctly dismayed. "Well, I would offer you reparation for that, but I've got a little problem of my own at the moment and can't return to Saillune."

'Reparations?' Martina thought, before her face broke into a smile. More resources to help defeat Lina would be a bonus, and she didn't really have a problem with the king of Saillune ever since her, erm, her father's original plan for world domination had been ruined. "Well, maybe my companion and I can help you with that little problem of yours." She said, narrowing her eyes.

"Hey!" Ranma objected. She wasn't really adverse to helping this guy out if he had a problem, but she really didn't like being volunteered like this.

"Well," Philionel interrupted, not seeming to realize that he'd cut Ranma off. "If you are willing to help me with my problem, restoring piece and justice to Saillune, I certainly won't say no, but are you sure that you want to get involved in the danger?"

"Danger?" Martina asked, suddenly sounding worried.

"Yes. You see, there has been a rumor going around the kingdom that someone is looking to assassinate me. I was fleeing the city to keep any innocents from being involved if the assassins decide to strike." Philionel explained.

"Assassins, huh?" Ranma asked, casually. "So they'd be the guys who stacked a buncha barrels of gun powder next to the road and rigged 'em to explode?"

"Oh, and who are you, young lady?" Philionel asked, turning to Ranma as she gestured to the barrels of explosives nearby.

The redhead's eye twitched, but she quickly pushed down her annoyance. He didn't know about the curse, after all. "My name's Ranma." She said, simply.

"Well, perhaps we can talk somewhere else." Martina said, gesturing around the road. "All of that stuff there makes me a little nervous."

"Yeah, sure. We passed a little town with an Inn about an hour ago." Ranma said, pointing down the road.

Philionel nodded in agreement, and the three started walking away. As they were about to leave eyesight of where they had been, the prince's eyes widened and he quickly turned around.

"What are you doing?" Ranma asked, confused.

He ignored her, concentrating incredibly hard and starting to chant. "Oh, source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, let thy power gather in my hand! Fireball!"

Ranma was about to ask what he was doing, when a wavering, weak seeming tongue of flame leapt from the larger man's cupped hands, streaking down the path that they had come down and striking the barrels of gun powder. They exploded with a tremendous crash, and he smiled.

"What the heck'd you do that for?" Ranma asked, rubbing at her ears, which she thought should be ringing from the blast. Judging from Martina's appearance, she had the same question on her mind.

"Oh, I just thought of a plan!" The older man exclaimed, happily. "And I can't believe that spell worked!"

Ranma sweat dropped as the guy struck a pose, yelling something about justice. 'Is it just me, or is all royalty 'round here cracked?' She thought, but had the good sense not to say it aloud.

HR.

Several minutes later, after Philionel had regained his composure and the group continued down the trail, Ranma looked at the older man strangely. "So… let me get this straight." She said, slowly. "You wanna pretend that blast killed you and hide out somewhere, while me 'n Martina investigate your kingdom to see who is tryin ta kill you?"

"Yes." Philionel said, nodding. "I know it's a lot to ask, especially after my horse struck Miss Martina, but I cannot, in good conscience, return to the city while there is risk of someone endangering the population while trying to harm me. Could you imagine what those explosives would have done if they had gone off in a populated area?"

"I… guess." Ranma said, unsure.

Martina, on the other hand, was much more sure of herself. "We'll do it!" She said, confidently. Ranma threw her a questioning glance, but decided that the two would talk about it later.

"Well, I guess this means we ain't gunna go to that Inn, at least not if you want no one to see you." Ranma said, looking at the prince.

"That's fine." The man said. "I have been out on the road, training in my special type of martial pacifism, many times and I was sure to bring supplies." Reaching up to the horse he was leading by the bridal, he tapped a small bag that was clipped to its side.

"If you're sure…" Ranma said, skeptically. She would have questionedthe concept of martial pacifism, but when she considered that she knew martial arts flower arrangement, she really couldn't talk. "If you've got a place in mind ta camp, me 'n Martina can escort you there before we go back to Saillune."

"Thank you." Philionel said, bowing slightly. "You two are truly a credit to the justice and light that this area holds most dear."

"…right." Ranma said, slowly.

HR.

"Well, how did it go?" A shadowy figure asked, standing in the middle of a darkened room. In front of him, the two cloaked beings stood. They were the same two who Ranma had recently scared off from their little road side trap, and judging from their statures, they looked annoyed.

"We were interrupted." One grumbled, in a female voice. "Some meddling swordswoman."

"We have managed to set the trap, however, and with luck it will catch our prize." The other, a male, said.

"With LUCK?" The figure demanded, angrily. "What do you mean with luck? You told me that you could kill him neatly and with no problems! What kind of useless…" He was stopped as one of the cloaked figures stepped forward, growling.

"I think that you should recall that we are partners, not servants." The figure, the male, snapped angrily. "We will dispose of your problem, and in fact may have already."

"I… Yes." The shadowed figure said, calming down. "I apologize. Still, could you also do something about the swordswoman who interrupted you? I do not want any connection with me suspected."

"Yes, of course." The male robed figure said, calmly, before teleporting away.

HR.

Almost an hour later, the pigtailed Mazoku and the priestess of Zoamel Gustav were walking back down the road to Saillune. Once they got out of earshot of the camp where Phil, as the man had asked them to call him after too many 'prince Philionels' had come out of Martina's mouth, was staying, the redhead turned a quizzical look to the green haired girl.

"All right." She said. "So why'd ya volunteer to help this guy out so quick? I mean, we are on a quest to do somethin completely different."

Martina shrugged. "Well, if we help the prince find the person who's trying to kill him, he'll owe us a lot! Then, we can get him to help us capture Inverse, and then…" She didn't finish her sentence, only starting to giggle maniacally.

Ranma just groaned. She hated it when Martina got like this. Noticing that they were coming up on the crater that marked where the gun powder had exploded, she grabbed Martina's hand. "I'd stop laughing right about now." She hissed, seeing several men on horse back and others in robes gathered around the area. "Just don't act suspicious."

"Right." Martina said, nodding, and pinning the most fake looking smile Ranma had ever seen on her face. The redhead groaned to herself, but couldn't do anything about it, as the two were about to actually walk down into the crater.

"You two! The Swordswoman and the Sorceress, halt!" One of the armored men boomed, as they had made it half way across the crater.

The two stopped, and looked over at the Saillune guardsman who had yelled. Next to him stood a taller, dark skinned and mustached man with a cloth headdress on his head, secured by a gold band with a blue jewel in the center.

Marching up to the two travelers, the dark skinned man looked them over. "Excuse me, but did you see a man riding a white horse pass you on the road?" He asked, sounding distinctly hopeful.

"Erm, no." Ranma started, willing her nervousness down into herself as far as it would go. Strangely, unlike when she was human, she found the act of controlling her nervousness while lying much easier. "Martina and I have been the only travelers on this road that I saw, sir." She said.

"I see." The man said, frowning. "If you see this man," He continued, withdrawing a small picture of Phil set into a plate of silver from his clothes, "Please inform the authorities immediately."

"Oh, that's prince Philionel, isn't it?" Martina asked, making Ranma want to shoot a warning look at her. "Why are you looking for him?"

"Don't worry about that." The man said, quickly. "Continue on into the city."

"Thank you." Ranma said, bowing and trying to be polite. As the two climbed out of the crater on the other side, she sighed in relief. "We made it past." She muttered. "Still, something struck me as weird about that situation. I mean, how'd they get down here so fast?"

"Do you think those are the people who are trying to kill the prince?" Martina asked, excitedly. The more quickly she finished this assignment, the better for her plans.

"I don't know." Ranma mumbled, then mentally kicked herself. She should have used her new abilities to read that man's emotional state, but unfortunately she'd completely forgotten about it, and turning back now would draw suspicion. "Let's just keep going." She muttered, not wanting to reveal how badly she'd screwed up.

HR.

Within about forty minutes, Ranma and Martina caught sight of the edge of Saillune as they crested a hill outside of it. "Wow…" Ranma said, stopping in shock as she saw the expanse of almost completely white city that lay in front of her. The streets were all set up in some sort of geometrical shape, though she couldn't quite make it out on an angle. "This place is huge!" Truthfully, the city wasn't a lot larger than the Furinkan district of the Nerima ward where she'd lived for the past two years, but it was bigger than any of the towns or villages she'd seen in this place so far.

"This is the capital of white magic for the entire region." Martina said.

"Wait, capital of white magic?" Ranma asked, starting to get nervous. She'd read in the book that white magic was generally opposed to dark magic, like that which made up most of her body now. "Going in there probably ain't that good an idea."

"Why not?" Martina asked, confused. "We have to in order to find the people we're looking for, after all."

"I don't…" Ranma said, before Martina grabbed her by the arm and started pulling. Even without her Chi enhanced strength, she could have stopped her from doing this, but the redhead was caught so completely off guard that Martina managed to get a run going, with the aid of the hill.

Now, in order to stop, she'd have to throw Martina's balance off and start her rolling down the hill. "Hey, stop!" The Pigtailed Mazoku continued, but was being totally ignored as the other girl ran towards the edge of the city, laughing manically.

Frowning in annoyance, Ranma started running alongside, vowing revenge if anything bad happened because of this.

As the two ran through one of the city's main gates, Ranma jolted for a moment, as if a charge of electricity had run through her. Feeling the jerk and stiffening from where she'd grabbed the redhead's hand, Martina looked back at her. "What's wrong, Ranma?" She asked, simply.

"Oh, it's… nothing." Ranma said, shaking her head. She'd felt something when she'd entered the city, but couldn't put her finger on what. Looking into herself now, she saw nothing wrong. "Let's go." She continued, shaking it off.

Suddenly, Martina stopped in her tracks, her eyes going wide. "Ooh, iced cream!" She smiled, seeing a large sign in front of a small shop that read "Saillune, best soft serve in the region!"

Ranma face faulted, the thought of the strange feeling seeming to vanish from her head as she picked herself up and chased the hyper-active green haired girl. "What did I do to deserve this?" She grumbled, under her breath.

HR.

In one of Saillune castle's highest towers, a man with green hair and oddly colored skin stood, looking down at the streets of the city. Catching sight of Ranma and Martina moving towards one of the areas of the city where places to stay could be found, he smiled. He didn't like things getting thrown in the way of his plans, and destroying that little human, and maybe even her sorceress companion, would be fun.

The man briefly let his eyes turn a deep shade of red before turning around and walking for the door that would take him down into the castle proper.

END.

Hmm, well that's one hell of a rival to have, I suppose. Ugh, my head hurts. Bye.

Okay, here we go. SRY, I had to take a couple days of break.

In those days, I played a lot of Starfleet Command II. Sadly, the USS Mousse was lost with all hands on Friday, and the Nodoka severely damaged. Took me most of today to make the money to repair the Nodoka and put the USS Kuonji into service.

Also, sorry, but this chapter's mostly dominated by a fight scene. knowing how I SUCK at fight scenes, it may suck too.

Anyhow, enough ranting. On with the fic.

Chapter 5, Fight! Anything goes, right?

"Aw, C'mon Zel, how long are you going to stay mad, anyways?" Lina Inverse asked, looking back at a rather angry looking Chimera, who appeared to be covered from head to toe in seaweed and other muck.

Zelgadiss didn't answer for a moment, only trudging along, his feet making a rhythmic squishing noise as he did so. Finally, he gave the orange-red haired sorceress a baleful look. "You used me as dragon bait." He said, deadpan.

"Aw, it wasn't that bad, was it?" The sorceress asked, laughing the other's anger off, as per usual.

"Hey, Lina!" Gourry called, from where he was walking with Amelia, a little ways ahead of the other two. "Amelia says the next town's coming up soon!"

"Great!" Lina said, happily. "I was getting hungry, anyways."

"But… it's only a few more hours travel to Saillune!" Zelgadiss objected. "I was hoping to get there tonight."

"Ah, it's only one more day, Zel! Besides, aren't you hungry?" Lina asked, skipping forward to meet up with their other two traveling companions.

Zelgadiss merely sighed. 'I really should be used to this by now.' He thought, before squishing after the others.

HR.

Ranma sat on the roof of the Inn, once more cursing his inability to sleep as he stared out over the expanse of city that was Saillune. He and Martina had been wandering the city, playing tourist and listening for any rumors about the prince's assassination. Well, he had. Martina had seemed to actually BE a tourist, judging from the several outfits she'd bought during the trip.

Leaning back against the roof top, the pigtailed martial artist's mind stopped for a second on the thought of his traveling companion. He'd agreed to travel with her as much because he didn't know anything about this world as to help her defeat this Inverse person she was after, and now he wasn't sure what was going to happen with her.

It was odd. He'd entered a whole new world, and already he had met a new girl that he was caught up with. Maybe it was another curse? Chuckling softly, he sat back up. Martina wasn't all that bad, and now that they had reached a major city, perhaps they would part ways.

That was rather likely, actually, since he thought that the capital for white magic would likely have a lot of information that may help him get home, and the person she was looking for wasn't here. "Hope she ain't gunna be too pissed." He muttered, before deciding to put the night to use.

He would go back to reading the book of magic that he'd been given, but he wanted to gather a little more power before trying any of the abilities that were talked about in the next chapter.

Leaping off the roof and landing easily on the street below with only a little more impact than he was used to, he began to walk down the street, letting his senses unfold, searching for a deposit of negative energy.

HR.

Behind the shadowed figure with the pigtail and armor, the Mazoku, Mazenda, quickly dampened her dark aura as much as she could. She felt the tendrils of another being seeking out dark energy, and couldn't afford to be caught. Still, the person she had been sent after was becoming more and more interesting.

She had tracked the red haired swordswoman to a local Inn, and then made note of her room before leaving, planning on trying to kill her in the night. Coming back later, she was very surprised to see the girl's room empty, and a figure with a recognizable pigtail on the roof.

Unfortunately, it was a new moon and she couldn't make out many of the figure's features, but she was reasonably sure that there weren't any other pigtailed, armor wearing people around here.

Within moments, she saw the figure's head perk up as if it felt something. She would have checked with her own senses to see what it felt, but that would have alerted her quarry to her position.

Merely observing with physical senses, she followed it slowly, watching as it wound its way through into the darker, dingier parts that every city, even one like Saillune, possessed. It stopped near a small group of vagrants, huddled around a fire, and stood for a moment, seeming to shift uncomfortably.

HR.

"Somethin' you want, sonny?" A grizzled old man asked, as Ranma stood near the fire where he and several other people were, letting their anger and misery fill him.

The martial artist felt vaguely dirty for doing this, but he needed more power, and leaving the city to hunt down a bandit gang would take far too long. "No, there's nothing." He said, shortly

"Well, then why are you here?" The man snapped, annoyed.

Ranma shifted, the vague sense of shame and disgust he felt growing. Sighing, he reached into his pocket. He knew that he still had a decent sized stash of gold back at the Inn, so withdrawing about twenty gold coins and handing them to the man wasn't an incredible loss… though his father and Nabiki both would have burst a blood vessel at the sight.

"Huh?" The old man asked, looking down at the cash.

"Share it with your friends." Ranma mumbled, turning and walking away. Expending that much gold every time he needed a recharge was going to make him broke pretty damned fast, and in future he'd have to make sure to think of some other way that didn't make him feel like a leach or a heartless bastard.

"Wait, what is this for?" The old man asked, chasing after Ranma as he walked.

"Can't tell ya." Ranma replied, before deciding to try one of the things he'd read about. He had a half-decent energy reserve, though definitely not full power, so it wouldn't hurt. Visualizing the world fading into a grey mist for a moment, he vanished into a black smoke, which quickly cleared to nothing.

"Huh?" The old man asked, blinking at the empty cobbles where Ranma had stood, before shrugging it off. "Crazy sorcerers." He muttered, heading back to the group he'd been with. He'd definitely share the gold, though. For all he knew, that sorcerer had put a spell on it so that if he didn't, he'd be cursed or something. You really never knew, especially around here.

HR.

Martina frowned as she looked into Ranma's room. "He's gone?" She asked, confused. She had just gone to get a drink of water from the well, when she'd suddenly gotten the feeling that she should check up on Ranma. This was a very odd feeling, since she hadn't really been worried about anyone before.

"I wonder where he went?" She mumbled. She knew that he never slept. It had something to do with how Mazoku were, but even so he'd been stationed next to her tent, or on the roof of the Inn she was sleeping in, for the last week. "Oh right, the roof!" She cried, happily.

Running into Ranma's room, she climbed out the already open window, grabbing onto the edge of the roof and hoisting herself up. "He's not up here either?" She wondered, now starting to get really worried. She'd have to start looking for him, but where?

Walking back to the edge of the roof, she looked down the two stories of the Inn's height, then gulped. Falling back, her eyes widened. "Wait…. How am I going to get down from here?"

HR.

About half a block away from where he'd started, Ranma re-emerged into the world, and almost immediately fell over. His head was spinning, and it felt like he was going to be sick. The teleport hadn't taken much energy, but the 'astral plane' he'd ended up in hadn't been at all like how the for dummies book described it. For one, the book never mentioned the incredible force that pushed him away from the center of the city when he was on it, or the blinding white hexagram.

Shaking his head to clear it, the martial artist turned Mazoku picked himself up off of the ground, dusting his clothes off, and looked around. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, but it would be easy enough to make his way back to the Inn.

As he started walking, he heard the sound of a pebble clattering across the street behind him. Turning, he saw a shape detach itself from the darkness, moving slowly towards him. "Who?" He asked, uncertainly.

The figure laughed as it came into close enough range for him to make out its features. It was a woman, wearing a white shirt and shorts in a similar style to Nabiki's usual. "Huh?" He asked, confused.

"Well, I apparently lost the little warrior, but…" The woman started, before her eyes flashed red. "Why is there another Mazoku here?"

Ranma just looked blankly, not sure what she wanted for a response.

"Not very talkative, are you?" She asked. "I and an ally of mine are conducting an operation here at the moment. I would leave if I were you." Her eyes narrowed on the last words, making it obvious that they were a threat.

Ranma bristled at this. "I got as much right ta be here as you do." He snapped, quickly. "Besides, I ain't gunna get in the way of your 'operation,' unless you're goin after innocent victims."

The woman actually laughed aloud at this. "You object to us harming humans?" She asked, skeptically. "You are an odd one. Well, if you won't leave on your own, I suppose I have to make you."

Ranma immediately got into a fighting stance, knowing where this was going. He was quickly proven right, as the woman gathered a ball of energy in one hand, flinging it at him. He dodged out of its way, but then frowned. He hated getting in fights with women, since he always felt like an ass if he hurt them while putting them down, but with how she'd referred to him as 'another' Mazoku, and her energy blast, she was probably stronger than your average girl.

Dancing out of the way of a second energy blast, Ranma closed in and grabbed her by the arm, flipping her over on her back and spinning about to face her prone form. To his surprise, she had regained her feet somehow half way through his turn, and a bolt of her energy slammed into his chest, lifting him slightly into the air and throwing him several feet back.

As he got to his feet, the pigtailed Mazoku felt a strange discomfort in his chest and stomach. It wasn't pain, he hadn't felt that since he'd become a Mazoku, but it was definitely unpleasant.

Looking down, he saw that her energy ball had burnt a pretty big hole through the front of his armor, and there was some sort of black smoke leaking out. "What…?" He asked, reaching up to feel the wound. Unlike a normal wound, especially one this severe, it wasn't bleeding. There was simply blackness on the other side, as if part of him had simply ceased to exist.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be draining the energy that he'd just been replenishing. Concentrating, he regenerated the wound, though it seemed to take a lot longer than the healing he'd performed before, during the bandit attack.

Looking back up and around, Ranma tried to find his opponent. She had apparently disappeared, and he was almost inclined to think that she'd left. Still, that didn't make sense. She'd been winning, and if she'd pressed the attack she could have done a lot more damage. No, there was something else going on here.

Slowly, he started to walk down the street, his Chi senses sweeping back and forth. He was searching for any disturbance, no matter how small. This was a very good thing, as if he hadn't been looking so carefully, the huge blast of energy that came out of nowhere would probably have vaporized him, rather than missing and totaling a nearby house.

Seconds later, the woman emerged from the darkness, trying to capitalize on the destruction she'd hoped to inflict with her attack. Unfortunately, she found a fully ready Ranma there, rather than a horribly injured one.

Several seconds later, after having both shoulders dislocated and half of her ribs smashed, she learned that tangling with Ranma at close range was a very bad idea.

The pigtailed martial artist himself winced, hoping that he was right and this girl was a Mazoku. If she wasn't, then he'd just done a fair bit of damage. Much to his mixed relief and dismay, she merely stood back up after the attacks, her shoulders popping back into place with sickening cracks.

"Now, you are getting annoying." The woman said, before her form blurred. Ranma's eyes narrowed, waiting for her next move as her body seemed to shift. Her clothing melded into the rest of her form, and her skin turned a dull grayish blue as her legs merged into what almost looked like a narrow evening dress with no feet at the bottom.

'Is that her true form or something?' Ranma thought, worriedly. She'd had to have changed for a reason, and if she was even stronger like this, things could get messy. Unfortunately, he was right, as she quickly proved when she blurred forward at a speed that approached his maximum with Chi enhancement. As it was, he barely got his arms up in time to block, and even then she hammered straight through his bracers and broke his left forearm.

Grunting in annoyance, Ranma was both thankful that he could no longer feel pain, and annoyed that he couldn't enhance his body to take blows like that any more. Of course, he wasn't sure he could have taken that attack even at full strength, but now was not the time to think about that.

As she charged again, he rolled to the side, lashing out with a foot and kicking her in the gut. This had absolutely no effect, and she proceeded to turn and unleash another energy ball at him.

This one propelled him into a wall, causing it to crumble partially on top of him. Clearing some of the brick rubble from his body, he saw that she was coming towards him again. Desperate, he wracked his brain for what to do. He'd tried his fighting arts, and they hadn't done terribly much. He knew that Mazoku were immune to most physical attacks, but it hadn't truly hit home until now. 'Well, if I can't hurt her physically,' He thought, reaching down into his well of power. He had tried this before, and it had failed, but he'd also seen another Mazoku do it and felt her aura during the process.

Praying to whoever would listen, Ranma gathered dark force in his hand, hidden under the pile of rock, as the female Mazoku stepped towards him, raising one arm with a red glow gathering at its hand.

With one last effort of will, the ball of energy finished forming in Ranma's hand, and he shot it up, releasing the projectile into the red haired Mazoku's face. It worked rather well, as she ended up flying back several meters. There were many severe burns visible on her head and shoulders.

Ranma sighed in relief, dusting himself off and standing up. Carefully, he watched for movement from his crumpled opponent. His eyes widened in disbelief as he saw her moving. He'd put almost all of his gathered energy into that attack, and it still hadn't stopped her? "Okay." He said, trying to just sound annoyed. "You've forced me to resort to my ultimate technique!"

Seeing his opponent tensing up, Ranma grinned cockily, before fading out of existence. As he did so, she could hear him yell "Run Away!"

HR.

Mazenda's eyebrow twitched violently as her prey vanished. She tried to track him through the astral plane, but the raw white magic that surrounded Saillune provided far too much interference. She considered pursuing him the old fashioned way, but the repulsion effect of the city's magic circle design could have pushed him anywhere from a couple of blocks to a couple of miles away. Growling in annoyance, the red haired Mazoku decided that she would just have to report this incident to Kanziel and deal with it later.

HR.

Near the gates to the city, Ranma sighed in relief and slumped against a wall. He hated to use the final attack, especially since it was so humiliating, but he had truly been outclassed in that fight. When he'd scanned the other Mazoku, she actually hadn't felt much stronger than he was, but she definitely knew how to use that strength a lot more. Grumbling, he started to head back to the Inn. Though he hadn't been able to get any practice done, he had definitely learned a few things.

'Next time.' He thought, determined. "I ain't gunna run again."

HR.

From his post behind a wall a short distance away, Xellos grinned. He'd been afraid for a moment there that he would have to step in, but it appeared that Ranma had things in hand, or at least he did to some degree. For a moment, he contemplated teaching the boy in the ways of the Mazoku himself… Nah, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as watching him bumble into his powers, he decided.

HR.

Hanging from the roof of the Inn, Martina's arms were shaking. She'd never known she was afraid of heights before this point. "Can someone please get me down from here?!" She yelled, plaintively.

END.

Hmm…. It appears Ranma's got a long way to go before he can get back up to par, which isn't a good thing. If you know where in NEXT we are, you know that he's gunna need all the strength he can get in only a couple days… especially with Lina on her way!

Well, please R&R, and don't kill me if this flubbed up, K?

Now, off to test the Kuonji!


	10. Ranma BGC XOver

Ranma BGC Xover. Title needed.

By Weebee.

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape or form, own Bubblegum Crisis or Ranma 1/2. Don't sue, please.

Prologue.

On a small monitor screen, an image of a man was displayed as he drifted slowly to wakefulness. Within a few moments, his eyes snapped open and he slowly looked around. As he did so, anyone watching him carefully would notice odd jerks in his movement, especially as he raised one hand to his face. He ran it across the skin there, and then flexed it.

Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he seemed somehow to miscalculate the strength of the action, and smash them into the bedside table. Oddly enough, this didn't seem to hurt his legs, but shatter the table instead. This stopped him in his tracks for several moments, and then he jumped the rest of the way to his feet. After this, he waved his hand in front of his face once more, tapped the side of his head, and snapped.

Within a few seconds, the man had charged at the door to the room, punching it off of its hinges easily and running through.

Chairman Quincy scowled, having seen quite enough of the video, and turned around. "And that's how this man broke containment?" He asked, astonished.

The two people in front of him, a man and a woman, nodded. "Yes, sir." The man said, sounding very nervous.

"How many did he take out?" The much older man behind the desk demanded, irritated.

The woman, who was wearing a well tailored business suit, answered. "One nurse, one neurologist and several injured guards." She admitted, reluctantly.

"I see." Quincy said, staring at the two people in annoyance. "You've been attempting to perfect this project for almost a year and a half, and you've gone through three subjects. I will tell you now that the only reason I am not cutting your funding this very instant is because Genom has sunk far too much into you."

The man gulped. "B… but chairman, we almost…" He started, before the older man's fist impacted on his desk.

"Almost doesn't cut it, Fukamoki. You will have two months to show me more results than an insane subject, or I'm cutting your funding entirely, and you will no longer have a job here." The man looked away from the two after saying this, and gestured towards his office door impatiently.

HR.

"That went well." The woman who had formerly been in Quincy's office drawled, as she and Mr. Fukamoki proceeded down the hall towards the elevator.

The man took off his glasses and sighed, rubbing at his temples. "Yeah, didn't it?" He asked, equally sarcastically. "I bet you're wishing that the finance department didn't shove you in here now, eh Tendo-san?"

The woman, now identified as Tendo-san, merely shrugged, pressing the button and waiting for the elevator. "It doesn't much matter to me either way." She admitted. "Though, of course, I'd like to see your project succeed if only because it will give me more respect through association."

He nodded distractedly. "There should be a meeting this afternoon of all of the staff. Will you be attending?"

She nodded. "Of course, wouldn't miss it." Stepping into the elevator, the two didn't notice a man who had been standing in the hall near the door to the chairman's office, who had been giving them odd looks the entire time.

HR.

About an hour later, Fukamoki, Tendo and several men and women in lab coats were sitting around a conference table, the former finishing a report on the meeting with chairman Quincy.

"So, sounds like that's the end of us." One of the researchers muttered. "There's no way we can get past the sensory mismatch problem in two months, let alone the other ones." The others nodded, but Miss Tendo interrupted, clearing her throat.

"I know I haven't been here long, but what do you mean, sensory mismatch problem?" She asked, calmly.

The researcher who had spoken up before didn't continue, but another, a rather attractive woman in her early twenties, did. "Well, you see Ma'am, it's basically a problem with human to machine interfaces. The mechanical parts tend to feed back too quickly sometimes, and too slowly at others. Combined with the knowledge of the change and the extra data being fed to the mind through the new components," She shrugged. "It's why people with more than 50% of their bodies modified tend to snap. They just can't handle it."

"So, it's a problem with mental adaptation to another body?" She asked, curiously.

"That's rather simplified, but essentially, yes." The woman said, nodding back.

"Hmm…" Tendo mumbled, thinking for a moment. "What if there was someone who'd already gone through something less extensive, and survived?"

"Less extensive?" Fukamoki asked, curiously.

"Our first subject had a cybernetic arm, he snapped just the same." The doomsayer from before piped up, but Nabiki shook her head.

"Not what I meant." She countered. "I mean someone who's had their entire body altered once before, and who also would probably welcome the cybernetics."

"Who?" Fukamoki asked, nothing else needing to be said.

Nabiki only smirked.

HR.

It had been two days since that meeting, and Sanji Fukamoki was beginning to regret his rash judgment to trust his new team's financial adviser so quickly. They had to, though, really. They couldn't even put out feelers to find another subject and secure one for testing in two months, normally, and if she had one that would agree and be secured right now, he really didn't have a choice.

Looking out of the passenger window of Tendo's car, he saw the suburbs of Megatokyo pass behind him, only to give way to some of the only clear land in modern Japan. He'd asked her where they were going earlier, but she hadn't answered. Now, however, his question was answered as the two of them pulled up in front of what looked like a martial arts Dojo, a small parking lot off to the side along with a one story house. 'She's brought me to see a martial artist?' He thought, confused.

Getting out of the car, Tendo noted that he was still nervously sitting in his seat. "Well, are you coming?" She asked, slightly impatiently.

At his nod, she started walking towards the Dojo, him following shortly after. As the two entered the large building, he looked about to take it in. There were twenty or so students practicing in the middle of the room, the only sounds to be heard in the room those of their feet slapping the floor rhythmically and the instructor's occasional shouted instructions.

On the walls of the room were various scrolls, including one that proclaimed it the "School of Indiscriminate Grappling," headed by a "Master Saotome."

Turning to the instructor, Sanji's eyes widened. The man wasn't standing at the front of the room leading the students through the moves, as he'd expected, but rather sitting there in what looked like an old fashioned non-motorized wheel chair. Looking the man over, he saw someone in his mid-20s, his long hair tied up in a pigtail that ran down his back and over the back of the wheelchair. Most of his face and upper body looked reasonably normal, with the exception of a long scar on part of one shoulder, until you realized that his right arm was missing, along with both legs below the knees.

The man seemed to notice Sanji looking at him, as he quickly turned his head away from his class after he and Nabiki had walked through the door. Eyes narrowing, the man motioned a student who had previously been standing behind him forward with his uninjured left arm. The two exchanged words for a moment, before the man started rolling himself over to them.

To Sanji's surprise, he did so by rapidly alternating his left arm on the left and right wheels of his chair, pushing them backwards easily. Honestly, it looked very awkward, but he was surprised at how much speed the younger man could get out of the maneuver. "Hey, Nabiki." He said, looking at Sanji's business partner suspiciously.

"Hello, Ranma. I see you're well." Nabiki Tendo said, bowing towards him.

He just shook his head. "You wanna go over ta the house for some tea?" He offered. "I figure ya got somethin ta con me out of."

Nabiki actually looked wounded. "Why Ranma, you've got me all wrong." She said, but the man didn't seem to be buying it. As the three started for the house, Sanji reached out to push the handles at the top of the chair, but Ranma shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, I can get around fine." The younger man said, almost seeming irritated.

The Genom scientist gave the brown haired woman walking next to him a confused look, but she just shook her head back. Ranma seemed to notice this interplay, but didn't bother to comment.

HR.

Several minutes later, Sanji found himself kneeling in the middle of a small living room, a cup of tea in front of him. Ranma was sitting in his chair across the table from him, and Nabiki beside him. "So, Nabiki, what do ya want?" The pigtailed man asked, easily.

"As blunt as ever, eh Saotome?" Nabiki asked, taking a sip of her tea. "But yes, I do want something." Noticing the man's eyes narrowing, she continued. "I think you'll like it this time."

Ranma snorted. "Ya mean how I liked yer sellin the Dojo grounds ta Genom?"

Nabiki frowned. "Ranma, the place was a total wreck. Besides…" She looked uncomfortably at his missing right arm, then over to a shrine that was set up across the room. "I thought you wouldn't want to have to remember the place."

Ranma looked away for a moment, and Sanji took the time to get a quick glance at the shrine Nabiki had indicated. It had several pictures lined up on it, including a blue-black haired girl, an older woman who looked slightly like Ranma, and a bald man with a bandanna wrapped around his head.

Ranma sighed. "All right, so what is it." He finally asked.

"Well," Nabiki started. "When we were teenagers, did you remember watching Ghost in the Shell with me and Akane?"

Ranma nodded, then smirked. "What, you gunna turn me into Kusanagi?"

"Not exactly." Sanji said, deciding to interrupt here. "What we wish to do to you is to install cybernetic components into your body, to enhance its abilities. Artificial legs and arms, Organs, even computer links and sensory enhancements."

Ranma looked at the two as if they were insane. "You're… kidding, right?" He asked, deadpan.

Nabiki shook her head.

"Nabiki, I've looked into prosthetics. They cost an arm and a leg, 'n they wouldn't give me nearly the movement or sensitivity I need." Ranma grumbled.

"That's the thing, Saotome. Genom's going to take the whole bill." Nabiki explained.

"Also, with the technology we're using, you should get enough control to do anything you would need to." The scientist added, hopefully.

Ranma sighed. "Okay, so what's the horrible downside?" At Nabiki's slight nervous look, he continued. "Ultimate technique, unbeatable, oh by the way, it makes you insane. Best training ground in China, and ya leave turnin into somethin else... There's ALWAYS a downside ta this type of stuff."

Nabiki winced, uncomfortable, and looked at the scientist for another explanation. Sanji answered, rather reluctantly. "All subjects of this process before you…" He stopped, trying to find a better way to say what he was about to, the continued. "…went insane."

Ranma nodded, rubbing his nose with his left hand. "So, why'd ya contact me for it?"

"The reason they went insane is because they had problems adapting to their new components. Basically, their minds couldn't take the switch." Nabiki said, then smirked. "I felt that your curse, as well as what happened to you seven years ago…"

"Ya figured I could survive it." Ranma replied. "Wow, Nabiki Tendo havin confidence in me? It's a miracle!"

Nabiki shrugged, not letting his attitude bother her. "Well, will you do it?" She asked.

Ranma thought for a moment. He knew that he should really just say no to Nabiki, flat out, but ever since the accident he'd wanted his legs back, if only so that he could practice the art again as well as teaching it. Also, he'd already trained at least a few students to the point where they could, theoretically, learn the school's final techniques by scroll. "Yer dependin on me sayin screw the odds, ain't ya?" He asked, scowling at the slightly older woman.

She merely nodded, smirking.

Ranma shook his head, marveling at her. "You're real hard ta figure out, ya know that?"

She shrugged. "Well, will you fall into my evil plan? This really could help you, if it works."

Ranma contemplated for several seconds more, but his conclusion had really been drawn when he'd thought of practicing the art again. Even after he'd started teaching students, the loss of both his true art and his family had left him missing something fundamental.

Even if he couldn't do anything to get Akane, Kasumi or his parents back, he could do something about this. Slowly, he nodded his head.

HR.

Several surgeons fussed over the still body of a young man, working with quick efficiency to connect several metallic components to the exposed nerve and muscle at his shoulders and hips. Most of the major work to reinforce his body had already been completed, and truthfully this group had done its job, and done it well, two times before.

"All right, that's the last major link for the right arm." One of them said, calmly, looking intently down at his work. Slowly, he looked over the joint where the arm and the shoulder met, ensuring once more that it fit together correctly, and looked up. "I think we can start the first stress tests."

Several of the other people in the room nodded, and one began tapping some buttons on a panel nearby. "All right, testing the nerve connections with some pre-measured stimuli." A few seconds later, he spoke again. "Pain, check. Heat, check. Tactile pressure feedback seems to be normal, Cold…" As he said the last, the equipment around him started to beep frantically.

Looking around, panicked, the doctor who had been at the console saw that all of the others were moving. When he'd sent the signal for cold, one that registered to the patient's sleeping brain as cold water, the patient had suddenly shifted. They had actually been briefed about Ranma's curse, and had ensured that all of the components would be compatible with the size of Ranma's female body, but now…

"Damn it, the artificial components, almost all of them are gone!" One doctor cried out, moving around the red haired girl who now lay on the operating table, the spots where her limbs used to be leaking a large amount of blood. Her face was contorted in pain, also, even through the anesthetics.

"Damn it, stop the bleeding, get some life support systems in here, now!" One of the men bellowed, and Sanji sighed, flicking off the projector that showed the scene to the boardroom full of his staff. "Apparently, the curse takes anything directly connected to his nervous system as part of his body." He explained.

"Well, we're screwed, then." The rather pessimistic man from the first meeting said, shaking his head. "If all of the components disappear when he gets wet, our super soldier isn't worth much."

Another scowled. "Can't we… I don't know, rewire his brain so he can't feel the water? I mean, it was just a nerve impulse that made him change last time."

Sanji shook his head. "This project's trying to keep as much human sensation as possible. If he snaps when he wakes up, and we've altered those signals, how do we know that it's just the procedure and not us messing with his sensory system?"

"Well, we can't exactly create another set of equipment for him to use, I mean we're so in the hole already that we had to use the last poor bastard's stuff for him already." One of them said, scowling.

"Actually," Nabiki said. She'd just been added to this meeting as a sort of courtesy, and everyone was surprised when she spoke. Ignoring them, she continued. "The equipment for the subject before last is still in your resource list. Do you still have it?"

One of the Genom researchers, a brown haired woman, shrugged. "Yeah, but it's a totally different system design. He's got a strength build, and it was meant for infiltration."

Nabiki shrugged. "So? If all of the components vanish when his curse is triggered, then what does it matter substituting a different set?"

"It would take his brain a lot more getting used to." The other woman countered. "Could drive him over the edge as much as screwing with his sensations."

"Not really." Sanji chipped in, as if he was suddenly having a moment of inspiration. "We don't have to trigger the curse until he's been awake for a while, and we could probably even convince the company stock holders that the multi-role capability was an advantage."

"Yeah, but we'll never be able to replicate it." The sullen guy contributed.

"Don't have to, just have to convince chairman Quincy to give you guys more money, and get usable data from Ranma." Nabiki said, with a smirk.

"Well, it's your call, chief." The other brown haired woman said, hands spread.

Sanji thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay, let's do it."

HR.

Vision came slowly and there were odd flickers around the edges as Ranma Saotome awoke for the first time in several weeks. Instinctively, he lifted his left arm to rub the sleep from his eyes, but something about it felt odd, both heavy and light at the same time.

Moving his hand away, he let his eyes range around, noting that wherever he was, the ceiling was disturbingly white. Shifting his left leg in preparation for getting up, he suddenly realized that he could feel the appendage, as it swung down out of the bed and made a soft clicking sound, resting against the floor.

Excitedly, he swung his other leg over the side, and pulled himself to his feet. It was only his long years of martial arts that kept him from tipping forward as he did so. Looking down, he saw that both arms and legs looked slightly bulkier than he'd remembered, and examining his hands revealed a complete lack of calluses. Even still, they looked real, scarily so, almost as if someone had cut them off of someone else and put them on his arms.

Shaking off those strange thoughts, he walked over to a mirror that was across from the bed, and looked in. Most of his body looked normal, and slowly, he began to smile. Hearing a strange sound outside of the room, Ranma turned around, just as the door opened and Nabiki walked in, that Genom doctor, he believed his name was Sanji, walking beside her.

Behind them, he saw several armed guards, two of which he instinctively knew were BU-55 C model boomers.

"So," Nabiki started, unsure. "How do you feel?"

Ranma scowled at her for a moment and raised his hands, just stopping as he saw the guards tense their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. Dropping his arms, he smirked. "Feel fine. So, what's goin on?"

Nabiki sighed in relief, quickly hiding the petrified expression she had been wearing when Ranma was glairing at her, and for some reason, the man next to her started to cry.

"Hey, is he all right?" Ranma asked, worriedly.

"Oh, he'll be fine." Nabiki said. "You just saved his career."

Ranma blinked at her in confusion, but just shrugged. "That's good, I guess." He muttered. "So, what now? I doubt I can just go home."

Nabiki nodded, then smirked evilly. "oh no, you've got a lot of work to do." She said, and Ranma suddenly felt as though someone had just walked over his grave.

END.

Okay, I really like this one for some reason, and boy do I have plans for it. In other words, if it's not shot down completely, it's probably going out onto my fanfic list. Still, don't let that stop you if you think it sucks.

Having said that, there is one thing I'd like to say. This fic uses BGC 2033 as a source, and only that. The idea of cybernetically enhanced humans going nuts was stolen from one of the other series, but I'm ignoring most of that other series since I never actually saw it.

Basically, if you see me diverging from canon, ask yourself this. "Was that Canon in the first 8 episodes?" if the answer is yes, please tell me so that I may correct the error I've accidentally made. If no, then I don't want to hear about it.

Well, that's all for now! Please, review and tell me what you think!


	11. Shaking the Foundations

Okay, Hi folks. I know there's going to be hell for me doing this, but a lot of my ideas get pushed aside for other ones, and this fic is, IMHO, too short to stay up on its own with pretty well no hope of updating, so like everything else in the vault, it's now up for adpotion. Given that what's been written so far isn't really out of the norm, I don't expect anyone to pick up on it. Still, I hope those who liked or like it don't mind its' being moved here.

And now, I shall hide like the scared rabbit I am.

Enjoy the read, folks.

Prologue, Accidental Magic

Shaking the Foundations.

Disclaimer 1: I don't own Ranma or Harry, so don't sue me.

Disclaimer 2: While I've done my best to research the HP universe, I am not nearly as obsessed with it as I am with Ranma. Having said this, I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert. I may screw up, though I'll do my best to try not to. Quite frankly, venturing into a fandom this big kinda scares me, but I hope you enjoy my offering.

Summary: A force that's been hidden inside of Ranma finally reaches its breaking point after the failed wedding, and now he must attend Hogwarts in order to learn to control it. Poor, poor Hogwarts...

Prologue, Accidental Magic.

Ranma yawned expansively as he stretched his arms, being careful not to disturb his father in the next bed over. The old man had spent most of the past week and a half drowning his sorrows with Soun, which suited his son just fine as it let him sleep in, for once in his life. Getting up, and not really bothering to even look at the old fool, the boy grabbed a set of his normal clothing from a basket next to the door and headed for the furo.

Once there, he splashed himself with cold water in order to wake up, feeling the curse overtake his body. Looking up into the mirror, she saw bleary blue eyes looking back at her, in the middle of a dimly glowing face. She looked away, ready to start running the nice, relaxing hot water in the furo itself, when what she'd seen hit her.

Looking back up to the mirror so quickly that it whipped her pigtail against her back with a loud thwack, she confirmed what she'd just seen. She was, indeed glowing very softly, the ghostly outline of her male face visible around the edges of the female one she saw.

She shook this off, thinking that, perhaps, getting so much sleep after a life of deprivation had finally made her snap, and started running the water.

HR.

Twenty minutes later, after he'd cleaned himself thoroughly, Ranma climbed out of the furo, preparing to towel himself off. Out of curiosity, he took another glance at the mirror before getting dressed. Sure enough, there was a ghostly girl staring back, her outline laid over his like some overly-persistent aura projection.

After getting dressed, he walked out of the room, and saw a very tired Nabiki in the hall. She glanced up at him for a moment, and then grunted. He would have asked her if she saw anything odd about him, but she was completely useless this early in the morning, so he let it go.

By the time he'd gotten down stairs and seen the huge breakfast Kasumi had laid out for him, all thoughts of odd ghostly auras had vanished from his head, and he sat down to enjoy the food.

"So, your dad's still knocked out, huh?" Akane asked, as she slipped into the spot next to him at the table.

"Yeah," Ranma confirmed. "And with how the ol' fool smelled, he had a lot last night."

"Oh well, that just means we get more sleep." Nabiki drawled, making her slow way downstairs. Both Akane and Ranma waved, though the latter had just received his first bowl of rice and had his mouth too full of food to bother with an actual response.

HR.

The day went normally until lunch. Well, normal was a relative term, but it was going pretty well the same as it had been since the failed wedding. He and Akane were getting along slightly better since their talk the night after the incident, and the Fiancées, for the most part, weren't ready to show their faces yet.

The only real annoyance was Kuno, who had been carrying a real blade to school ever since the week before, when he'd escalated to that stage at the wedding.

At lunch, however, everything took a tern for the weird again. Ranma was in female form, due to the fact that gym class had been earlier in the morning, and the teachers weren't accepting his old doctor's note anymore. She'd decided to eat lunch before heading back into the school for some hot water, and this had ended up being a mistake.

As she, Hiroshi and Daisuke chatted, the latter two only glancing at her chest every few minutes, which was quite an improvement, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps from behind her.

She was about to turn and see who was running towards her, when she felt them wrap their arms around her. The form was definitely male, that she could feel from the musculature of his chest that was pressed against her back. "Kuno…" She growled, and any normal person would have had the sense to let go of her immediately.

This, however, wasn't a normal person. "Ah, my pigtailed girl! How glorious it is to finally see you again, after several days of your total absence!"

Ranma winced, not wanting to think about the lucky, no water at school streak that she'd broken that morning. "Gerrof, Kuno." She growled, pushing at him, but not using full strength yet, since with the force he was holding her with that could break bones.

"Surely, my fair pigtailed girl, you jest? Of course, you wouldst wish to see me, your true knight, as much as Akane Tendo would, and the thought of being away from me fills your heart with sadness!"

Ranma's eyes twitched violently as she felt one of his hands cupping her left breast, and she entertained the thought of homicide. Almost as if in response to that thought, Kuno was torn away from her, causing a good deal of pain to her breast in the process.

Ranma looked around, surprised, and knowing that she hadn't done anything to him. When she'd finally caught sight of the idiot Kendoist, he was in the middle of the school yard, hanging by his feet in mid-air.

"What in the…" The redhead asked, walking up to her most annoying rival, confused. No one responded, other than Kuno's own bellows that the foul sorcerer Saotome would pay for this. Immediately after that, his Hakama top vanished. As he continued on his diatribe against Ranma, his ancestors, his martial skill and his cowardly actions, small bits of his clothing vanished, until he was left, still hanging by the feet, in a set of heart covered boxers.

Ranma couldn't help it. She fell back onto the ground, and started laughing her head off. She didn't know how it had happened, but that was such a perfect punishment for Kuno that she didn't really care.

Recovering herself, the pigtailed martial artist arched backwards and jumped to her feet, smirking at Kuno, who was now flailing impotently with both hands. "I shall get you for this, SAOTOME!" He cried, as the person in question headed back into the school, snickering.

HR.

In the middle of Furinkan high's front courtyard that night, a man stood in front of the form of Tatewaki Kuno, who appeared to be asleep, or otherwise unconscious. He contemplated the body for a moment, and then withdrew a small object from the brown Gi he wore, waving it over the young man's form.

Almost instantly, Kuno began to lower from his suspended position, gradually settling onto the ground. The man in the brown Gi nodded, moving the object in his hand through a complex pattern in the air and muttering something, before a set of clothing materialized on Kuno's form, and he vanished with a pop.

"Very interesting." The man muttered, stowing the item he'd withdrawn earlier, his glasses gleaming in the moonlight. "I'll have to contact the ministry."

HR.

Two days later, Ranma ran down the street, extremely annoyed with the world in general. Held in the crook of one arm, he had a load of groceries that Kasumi had asked him to pick up, and behind him he could still hear the sound of Kodachi's high, mad laughter.

She'd gotten the jump on him only about five minutes ago, but it was rather hard to lose her while carrying the load of groceries without sending them spilling onto the street or into the canal. As it was, he quickly ducked into an alley while she was distracted by her cackling, dodging behind a trash can and hunkering down to wait.

As he took a second to take in his surroundings, he noticed that the trash can lid was slightly ajar, and there was a set of gleaming eyes peering out at him from it. He gulped audibly, hoping that Kodachi would leave fast, as he was relatively sure that he knew what was in the trash can.

The gymnast did, indeed, get bored and decide to take off shortly after her Ranma-sama vanished into the side streets, but unfortunately it wasn't quickly enough, as the yellow eyed creature decided to make its move right before Ranma was able to make his.

Leaping out of the trash can, the massive feline knocked into Ranma, landing on his chest as he fell back. The animal was brown and black, its fur patchy and dirty, and it nuzzled into the pigtailed boy's chest as if it had just found a great new friend.

Ranma, on the other hand, was of a far different opinion, as he once again felt the claws of a hundred cats tearing into his skin so long ago. He tried to scramble away from the cat, still barely keeping Kasumi's groceries balanced in one arm, but the thing stuck resolutely to his chest, even making things worse by sinking its claws in to keep a hold.

"C… c'mon, let go." Ranma squeaked, though his throat was constricted with fear. "Please, just… go away." He tried hauling himself to his feet, but this one large cat seemed to have paralyzed him nearly completely. "Okay, Saotome, think. Ya gotta get it off, or yer gunna go into the Neko-ken, eat all the food, and Kasumi's gunna frown at you." He shuddered, that thought not quite as bad as the cat, but still pretty high up there.

'Okay, fine. So, I just pull it off.' He decided, reaching forward. As his hand came in contact with the cat's fur, however, he flinched, and it gave out a long, contented purr. 'Okay, let's try this again…' He muttered, closing his eyes. 'It's not a cat, it's somethin else, just sittin on my chest, and I gotta get it off. That's right, not a cat… a dog, that's it, it's a dog, like Bess, the one our neighbors have. Just a nice, friendly, harmless little puppy.'

He kept chanting this, reaching down again, and grabbing onto the ca… the DOG by its middle. Lifting it off of himself, he was surprised that it was so easy. When he cracked his eyes open, however, he received a major shock, as the animal which now stood beside his prone form, looking confused but still wagging its tail uncertainly, was, indeed, a small black and tan dog.

"Huh?" He asked, blinking at the thing. Still, he was relieved that the cat was gone, so shrugged and picked up the groceries. As he headed for the alley's entrance, however, he heard the clicking sound of the rather confused dog's paws hitting pavement. Looking back, he saw it standing right behind him, looking up with soft, expressive eyes as if to say 'what, you just going to leave me here?'

Ranma looked away from the animal, starting home, but heard it tapping along behind him. He contemplated telling it to go away, but then sighed. "Fine, follow me home, but Kasumi and the parents probably ain't gunna like it."

The dog's pace picked up, as if it had heard what the martial artist said, and it was soon walking alongside the funny human that seemed to radiate things that it quite liked to be around… even if it didn't quite feel right at the moment.

HR.

Ono Tofu sat in the back seat of a small car, next to a very old woman in a pink Kimono. "Are you sure of what you saw, Tofu-san?" She asked, as the car took a slow, smooth turn onto another street. If anyone other than those two had been in the vehicle, they would have noticed that it was driverless, but almost anyone outside of it seemed not even to realize it was there.

"It was definitely a western spell." Tofu said, taking off and rubbing his glasses. "Looked like the emotional work of an under-age wizard."

"And you still believe that it's the Saotome boy?" She asked. "He's hardly under-age, and one of the schools' books should have recorded him at birth if he had the gift."

Tofu shrugged. "Ranma does have the habit of being irritatingly hard to predict, Sensei."

The woman smiled slightly, and then nodded. "True." She said, as the car pulled to a slow stop. Looking to Tofu, who slipped his wand into a small pocket specially made for it in his Gi top, the two opened their respective doors and stepped out of the vehicle.

HR.

Later, as Ranma turned onto the street where the Tendo Dojo sat, he noticed a black car parked in the street in front of the place. This was very unusual, as there had never been very many of the vehicles in the country, especially in a small suburb like the Furinkan ward.

"Aw, man. If this is another rich family dad engaged me to, I'm gunna…" He grumbled. Sighing and deciding to get things over with, he started to walk faster, completely forgetting about the dog who was walking next to him.

As he walked through the front gate, he noticed that the place still seemed reasonably intact, and with his confidence slightly restored, he headed for the front door, slid it open, and called "I'm home!"

"Welcome home!" Came Kasumi's instant response, followed by another. "We have guests in the living room."

Ranma nodded, having figured as much, and kicked off his shoes, slipping on the house slippers and heading down the hall. Much to his surprise, when he got to the main room of the house, he saw Kasumi sharing a cup of tea with Dr. Tofu, whose glasses seemed to have an odd sheen to them that wasn't his usual Kasumi-induced fog, and… the old lady who always hit him with a ladle?

Surprised, but trying to hide it, he nodded to the two and sat at the other side of the table. The two bowed back, and Kasumi quickly served tea.

Tofu's eyebrow lifted when he saw the small dog that had walked in behind Ranma, but he didn't comment until after the tea was served and Kasumi left. "Hey, Kasumi, where're ya goin?" Ranma asked, worriedly.

"Tofu-Sensei and Tanaka-san wanted to talk to you in private, Ranma-Kun." The eldest Tendo said, smiling at him reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'll keep the rest of the family away for a while."

"Wow, um, thanks Kasumi." Ranma said, surprised. She merely continued to smile, leaving the room and humming to herself.

"Lovely girl, Tofu, you've definitely made the right choice." The ladle lady, who Kasumi had identified as Tanaka, cackled, causing Dr. Tofu to blush for a moment, then clear his throat.

"Sh… shouldn't we get on with why we're here?" He asked, slightly more annoyed sounding than Ranma had ever heard him.

Tanaka nodded, and then turned to Ranma, looking him over intently. He twitched a bit, fiddling with his hands behind his back and looking uncomfortable. Taking out a small object that Ranma couldn't quite identify, she held it up and watched it for a moment.

Satisfied, she slipped the device back into her Kimono. "Well, you were definitely right, Tofu, as the poor cat over there can testify." She said, gesturing to the dog that had walked into the room and settled down next to Ranma. Seeing his flinch at the word, she sighed.

"So he is a wizard?" Tofu asked, half-way between amused and surprised.

She nodded. "Though I can't imagine why he didn't appear on any of the schools' rosters, or why he only started manifesting accidental magic now."

"I've got some theories on that." Tofu said, "but perhaps we should explain what we're talking about before he explodes?" The man smirked, noticing that Ranma was looking between them like a spectator at a tennis match, his mouth slightly open.

"Yeah, what do ya mean, I'm a wizard?" He asked. "Only magic I got is the curse, 'n I want rid of that."

"Not the only magic you have." Tofu said, shaking his head. "Or didn't you wonder why Tatewaki Kuno ended up half naked and dangling by his feet in the schoolyard two days ago?"

Ranma snickered for a moment, reminded of the pleasant memory, but then shook his head. "I don't know how that happened, I certainly didn't do it. Wish I had, though."

"Oh?" Tofu asked. "You weren't very angry at him, perhaps wishing he would be humiliated, when it happened?"

"Well, yeah, the perv was gropin me again, but I…" Ranma started, but Tofu continued.

"And has anything else odd been happening to you lately?"

For a moment, Ranma saw his own reflection in the mirror, the one he'd been seeing ever since the week before, with his alternate form seemingly floating over his current one. Plus, he'd noticed since then that he'd seen flickers of his father's panda form while the two were sparring. He hadn't seen any other cursed people since then, but he had a feeling that it would be the same with them. "Well, I…" He said, uncertainly.

Tofu nodded. "And what about the cat?"

Ranma shuddered. "Okay, fine, ya convinced me somethin's goin on, all right, just… don't mention those damned things." Reaching over, he found his fingers gently running through the fur of the dog that had followed him home. "So… um, how do I stop doin all this weird crap?"

Tanaka-san raised an eyebrow, curiously. "You mean you simply want to stop your accidental magic, rather than learning how to control it?"

Ranma grimaced. "Magic 'n me don't tend ta get along." He answered, simply.

Tofu stifled a laugh, then nodded. "Well, the usual way to get uncontrolled magic under a person's control is to attend a wizard's school." Ranma's eyebrow lifted, but the older man continued. "Unfortunately, most schools require that students start at age eleven, and seventeen year olds like yourself are usually graduates."

Ranma frowned. "Wait a minute, Magic schools? Wouldn't I have heard of places like that?"

Tofu shook his head. "Most of them are very secretive. Magic isn't exactly known to the average muggle on the street."

Ranma snorted. "With the kinda crap that goes on 'round here? I'm pretty sure everyone in the ward knows about at least one bit of magic, and what do ya mean, Muggle?"

Tofu shook his head. Ranma was asking a lot of rather pointed questions today, and Tanaka-sensei was starting to look impatient. "Well, Nerima's a sort of test case, to see how non-wizards take magic." He shrugged. "All of Japan is, really, given the amount of old traditions we have that are versed in their own special branch of magic."

"Okay, so if I can't go ta a magic school, why not just learn from one of those ancient traditions you were talkin about?" Ranma asked.

Tofu smirked. "I never said you couldn't go to a magic school, just that it would be unusual… and as for those traditions, the closest to normal wizard magic is… well, how would you feel about a Chinese dress?"

Ranma's eyebrow twitched, hard. "That is really not funny, doc." He grumbled.

Tanaka-san's annoyance had been alleviated by a bit of good humor, so apparently she disagreed with Ranma. Still, she had to move the conversation along, so she continued. "As Tofu just said, most of the magical schools would not want to teach a student as old as you are, however, there's one in Britain with a rather… unconventional… headmaster."

"Oh no," Ranma interrupted. "I ain't getting magical pineapples thrown at my head, this time!"

Both Tanaka and Tofu couldn't help but laugh at this, but when the latter recovered, he shook his head. "Actually, he's fond of Sherbet Lemons, but I'm sure he'd never throw them." Seeing Ranma calm down a bit, he continued. "He's just very open-minded to young wizards with problems that most of the wizarding world doesn't want to deal with. For example, one of his fourth year students is a lycanthrope."

"A what?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"A werewolf." Tofu said, sighing.

"Wait, this is gunna take me four years?" Ranma asked, hitting on something tofu had said earlier.

The older man shook his head. "If you only want to gain control of your accidental magic, it should only take you one or two, but to really learn all there is to the art, it takes students seven."

Ranma nodded. "Um, I guess… this weird stuff's gunna keep happening until I find out how to control it?"

"Due to Nerima's special protected status, you'll be allowed to live here even without training in the magical arts," Tofu explained. "But, if my theory of how you gained your power is correct, the strange events will become more and more intense as you age."

"Guess that means I got no choice, I guess." Ranma grumbled, then perked up. "Hey, can this magic maybe cure my curse? That'd be a pretty good trade-off for having to spend two years studyin."

Tanaka shrugged. "Saotome-san, I've spent a year and a half studying that curse of yours, and it looks damned near unbreakable, but if anyone can help you with it, they'd be at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts, eh?" Ranma asked. "Kinda weird name, but… if I gotta do it, I gotta do it." Then, he smirked. "Plus, I'll get to see if I cause the end of the world."

"Hmm?" Tofu asked, surprised.

"Well, I learn magic, I'm gunna be a sorcerer. Kuno'd be right about me, for once." Ranma explained, prompting a soft chuckle from Tofu. "Um… doc, can ya help me tell the parents? I'm pretty sure they'd flip if I told 'em I was goin off ta England, and they wouldn't exactly let me explain."

"Of course." Tofu said, simply.

HR.

Ranma sat in his room, holding a small bag that clinked when he shifted it in his hand. It had been something Tofu had given him, telling him that it should be enough to buy his first year's equipment. Ranma had tried to refuse it, especially since the last time he'd seen Tofu, and the reason he'd been guiltily avoiding him since, he and Ryoga had pulverized one of the clinics walls.

Still, Tofu had insisted, explaining the magical money's British exchange rate to the younger martial artist, and telling him that he was reasonably well off, as wizards went, and could afford the loss.

Tossing the bag full of small gold and silver coins into his pack, Ranma looked around again to make sure his father was still downstairs, and then checked the pack for everything he normally needed. He didn't look up as he felt the presence of someone reach his door, but he knew who it was. "Hey, Akane." He said, quietly.

"Hi." The blue-black haired girl said, tentatively walking in and settling down on the floor next to him. "How's the packing going?"

"It's okay, I never had much to begin with." Ranma said, then winced, seeing her lowering her head from the shadow cast on the wood. "Hey, I never really needed much, y'know."

"Yeah." Akane said. "I just can't believe you're going, after all the time here."

"Hey," Ranma said, quickly. "I'll be back on holidays and stuff, y'know." Then, he shrugged. "Plus, I thought ya couldn't stand me bein around, figured it'd be a good vacation."

Immediately, he realized he'd said something wrong, as Akane stiffened noticeably. He was about to apologize, when she dove for him and hugged him tightly. "H… hey, what're ya doin, tomboy?!" He asked, panicked. Feeling her shake against him, he reluctantly lowered his hands from their panicked position, and rubbed her back. "What'd I do?"

"Stupid jerk…" Akane said, and released him. "You'd better come back on those holidays, and you'd better write!"

"O'course I'm gunna write! Kasumi'd kill me if I didn't!" Ranma replied, quickly.

"Good… so… so long as you understand that." Akane said, her voice quavering slightly. Moments later, she stood up and left the room, sniffling.

Ranma sighed, not really knowing what that was about, and hoisted his pack onto his shoulder. Tofu had told him that he should come to the older man's office to leave later that night, and he'd arranged a place for Ranma to stay while he picked up his school supplies.

When Ranma asked if Tofu would be there to help him out, the older man had said that he had to stay in Nerima to help with the experiment there, but that Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, would be around to give Ranma some basic guidance.

Ranma had wondered why the headmaster of the school was going to see him, but Tofu just smiled enigmatically, telling him that he'd find out when he met Dumbledore, and refused to say anything else. Shrugging to ensure that his pack was sitting correctly on his shoulders, Ranma made his way to the window and prepared to jump out of it.

He'd already said goodbye to Akane, and he was sure that Kasumi would understand. Besides, he wasn't sure he wanted to push his luck with the parents.

Hoisting himself over the edge of the sill, Ranma Saotome took one last look back at the Tendos' guest room, and jumped off into the night.

This dramatic exit was ruined a few seconds later, however, when he landed on something small and furry that had apparently been camping out under his window. It let out a loud yip, and Ranma jumped off of it, landing next to it.

Looking back, he saw the dog that he'd found a few days before, sitting there and favoring one of its back legs. "Damn, sorry." He muttered, kneeling down and checking the limb. Noticing that, somehow, it hadn't been broken, he smiled. "You'll be okay, though." Patting the animal on the head, he turned to leave, but heard a whining noise trailing him.

Turning again, he saw the animal walking after him, dragging one leg pathetically. "C'mon, ya gotta rest that 'till morning and you'll be fine." He said, annoyed. "'n I gotta go." The dog didn't seem to listen, still trying to follow Ranma, its eyes round, and strangely visible in the night.

He really considered just leaving the thing there… well, he sort of did… okay, so maybe he didn't. Cursing himself for an idiot, the pigtailed boy walked over to the dog, scooping it up in his arms, before jumping over the Tendo compound's wall.

As he ran towards Dr. Tofu's place, he felt a wet and cool nose pressed up against his cheek, and a short tongue licking. "Yeah, just stop it." He muttered, gruffly.

END.

Chapter 1, Meeting on a Diagonal

Okay, here's chapter 1. Sorry, I would have had it out yesterday, but then FFN started eating reviews, and I wasn't sure if I wasn't getting hate mail. *Laughs* Now that I know that I won't be screaming into the wind, I suppose this fic has made it onto my list. Can't promice another update as quick as this one, but I'll do my best and we can hope, right?

Chapter 1, Meeting on a Diagonal.

As the sun flooded through the window of a small bedroom, its two occupants shifted in order to ignore it as best they could. The dog on the floor next to the door put its paws over its eyes, while the human, comfortably nestled in the bed sheets, rolled himself to try and avoid the light.

Unfortunately for the figure in the bed, it was rather narrow, and he ended up rolling off of the edge, hitting the floor with a soft thump. Grumbling, he fought his way free of the covers, his head poking up over the side of the bed and looking around.

For a moment, confusion registered on the pigtailed boy's face, before realization took over. "Oh, yeah, Doc Tofu brought me here yesterday." He muttered. Getting to his feet, Ranma looked around the room for his belongings, seeing his backpack leaning against the far wall. Since he was pretty sure this place didn't have a Furoba, he quickly got dressed. As he was straightening out his pigtail in front of the mirror, however, he heard a soft voice whispering from inside of it.

"Hmm, you're a scruffy one, aren't you?" It asked, causing Ranma to jump.

The young martial artist recovered within a few seconds and glared at his own reflection, without anything else to focus his eyes on. "Didn't ask you, did I?" He snapped, irritated.

The mirror huffed, seeming annoyed as well, and Ranma turned to leave the room. Seeing that the dog still had its paws covering its eyes, he decided to let it sleep.

Locking up his room, room 14, he pocketed the key and proceeded down into the main level of the small Inn where Tofu had dropped him off.

Looking around the main bar and restaurant area, Ranma blinked. He hadn't really had much time to take in the customers the night before, as he'd gone up to his room almost right after he'd arrived, but now that he looked more carefully he saw that the dimly lit room was full of one of the oddest assemblages of humanity he'd ever seen.

It wasn't THE oddest. After all, he'd been all over Asia at some point or another, but he had to admit that a group of men and women dressed in what looked like multi-colored bath robes, occasionally accessorized with a pointed hat, was pretty close to the top.

Walking through the room slowly, Ranma took a seat at the bar, smelling something good coming from what he assumed was the kitchen door.

Within a few seconds, a bald, stooped middle-aged man with yellowing teeth shuffled up to him. "The wizard what came in with ya paid for yer meals for today, so what'll it be?" He drawled.

"Um, what do ya got?" Ranma asked, hoping that his English would hold up under field conditions. He'd learned the language during a short stint in an American military base up in Hokkaido, and the version of it that this man spoke was somewhat hard to understand.

The man proceeded to rattle off a list of foods that Ranma didn't really recognize, aside from a few basic ones like Sausage, Eggs and toast. He had heard of chips, too, but he was wondering why snack foods would be offered for breakfast. "I'll take the Eggs and Sausage." He said, and then resumed looking around the room.

Noticing the man next to him reading a paper, he looked at it curiously, noticing that something on the front page was moving. For a second, he just thought that the man was moving the paper around a lot, but after he gained a reference point, he noticed that the people in the images were moving around.

"Um, hey, can I take a look at that?" Ranma asked, curiously, tapping the man who had been reading the paper on the arm.

"Oh, what?" The other man asked, distractedly. looking up. Noticing the boy next to him, he smiled. "Sure, I was done with the results of the last Quidditch game, anyway."

Ranma nodded, and took the paper. The headline was written in a very fancy font that he found hard to make out, something about a "Deadbeater" or something, but he could now confirm that the image, that of an old man who looked rather nervous and appeared to be being questioned by reporters, was moving. In fact, as he looked at it, the man seemed to get frustrated with the questioning and stomp off out of frame.

"Thanks." Ranma said, handing the paper back to its original owner, and noticing that the bar tender had returned, setting a large plate full of food in front of him.

"Ah, just wanted to see the top story?" The man asked. "That Marduke, right worthless Minister for Magic he is, you ask me." He muttered, though Ranma lost track of what he was saying as he dug into his food.

HR.

Half an hour later, Ranma found himself standing in a small, enclosed area behind the bar, which he'd found out was called the Leaky Cauldron." He'd asked the owner if there was anywhere for him to work out, and the man had told him that he could practice his spells back here, "so long as ya fix everythin ya break, an' don't let the Muggles see it."

Ranma had thought about correcting him and saying it was martial arts practice, but figured that it didn't matter either way. Starting up a slow series of movements, and ensuring that his more sweeping blows didn't hit any of the nearby garbage cans, Ranma didn't notice, several minutes later, when the door to the bar creaked open and one of the guys in bath robes, an older one with a long white beard and hair to match, exited.

The man didn't speak, merely watching Ranma as he practiced his art, one hand scratching at his chin. He watched for several moments, before clearing his throat. Seeing that this didn't gain him any of the boy's attention, he did so a second time, and then took several confident steps out into the middle of the yard.

Ranma blinked, his foot stopping only about six inches from the other's head, and then lowered the striking appendage to the ground. "Hey, ol' man, you nuts?" He snapped, forgetting himself and saying it in Japanese.

The old man in question merely smiled. "You did stop, correct?" He asked, in the same language.

"What, ya did that 'cuz you wanted to talk to me?" Ranma asked, incredulously, though he did let himself fall out of the ready stance he'd assumed after dropping his foot.

"Indeed." The old man said, nodding. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, and you are Ranma Saotome, correct?" He asked, and as Ranma realized who he was, a small twinkle crept into his eye.

"Great, I called the principal of the school I'm supposed ta go to insane." Ranma muttered. This was looking like a pretty normal meeting. "Sorry 'bout that, sometimes I let my mind go when I'm stretchin… erm, and about me callin ya nuts, but you did kinda walk in front of a kick."

"Quite all right." Dumbledore said. "Now, since we both know each other, I believe it would be best if we got on with matters, Hmm?" As he said this, the old man reached into a pocket in his bright purple bathrobe, decorated with several moons and stars, and withdrew a letter, along with two small wrapped candies. "Would you like one?" He asked, extending the candy and the letter.

Ranma just looked at him oddly for a moment, before reaching out and taking the letter, which he'd noticed had his name written on it in neat English writing, along with a quite unusual address. "Ranma Saotome, The Leaky Cauldron, rear courtyard." Seeing that the man was still holding out the candy, Ranma shook his head. "I'm okay," He muttered, carefully ripping the top of the letter and reading through it.

Though Ranma hadn't seen them before, for the most part, the letter looked as he'd expected one from any specialized school to look. It told him that he was accepted, and when the first day of classes was. That caused him to blink, as it was still more than a month away, but what really managed to surprise him was the list of materials. He wasn't surprised he hadn't heard of any of the books. After all, there were a lot of books in the world and he'd never been one for reading in the first place, but…. "Where the hell am I gunna get a wand and cauldron?" He burst out.

"Hmm, seems Tofu really was rather busy," Dumbledore said, and then smiled. "Don't worry, the place where you can get your school things is close to here."

"Really?" Ranma asked. "Didn't see any magic shops when I came in with the doc." Dumbledore didn't answer, withdrawing a thin wooden stick with a metallic tip on one end from his robe, and stepping past Ranma to a wall where several garbage cans stood. Lifting the wand in his hand, he gave the stones next to the cans several taps, and the wall seemed to slide in half.

Ranma tried to hold back his gasp of amazement as a street about the size of Nerima's main shopping district seemed to fold itself into view from out of nowhere, but from the pleased twinkle in the old man's eye, he hadn't managed to hide it well enough.

Stepping past the Hogwarts Headmaster, the martial artist took a quick look around, reading names off of the nearest store fronts. The one nearest him answered at least half of his original question, as it simply read "Cauldrons," and had several large ones stacked in its front window. Next to that was a shop called "Olditch's Owl Emporium," with a cage hanging in front of its window, containing a hooting barn owl.

"Okay…" Ranma breathed, looking around. He really wasn't sure what else to say, especially since he'd only ever seen two magical item sellers before in his entire life, and that Jusenkyo Products guy hadn't really had a shop.

From next to him, the old man chuckled. "Well, I see you're impressed." He said, and then gestured. "I'd suggest you get your wand first, and then worry about the other items."

"Yeah, sure." Ranma said, still slightly shocked, though as he started walking down the street, his wits began to return. "Hey, um…" He trailed off.

"Students tend to call me Sir, or Dumbledore, which ever you're comfortable with." The old man responded, catching Ranma's hesitation.

"Yeah, um, Dumbledore, why're ya doing this?" Ranma finally asked, looking out for a place where he could buy a wand.

"Hmm? Ah, why am I here, assisting a first year student, you mean?" Dumbledore asked, calmly. At Ranma's shrug, he continued. "Well, if I didn't, you would be hopelessly lost, wouldn't you?" He noticed Ranma's eyebrow twitching, and chuckled. "But to be more serious, I am here because I enjoy meeting as many students as I can, and prefer to be the one to introduce Muggleborn wizards and witches to the magical world. As for why…" he stopped for a moment, pondering, and then jabbed one finger into the air. "It's so enjoyable seeing the looks on your faces!"

Ranma processed this response, his eyes still flickering along store fronts on either side of the street, until he came to a place called the "Magical Menagerie," where there was a tiny black kitten looking out the window at him.

He flinched backwards, almost falling into a display of Terrariums across from the place, before Dumbledore grabbed him by the arm. He was quite surprised by the strength of the older man's grip, as he seemed quite frail. "I'm all right." He stammered, making sure to avert his glance from the window of the Menagerie, and feeling rather annoyed with having shown such weakness.

"That would be the cat problem Tofu warned me about." Dumbledore said, and then reached up his left sleeve with his right hand. Ranma was about to ask him what he was doing, when he pulled his hand back, a pair of thin rimmed glasses coming with it. Dusting them off on the side of his robes, he presented them to Ranma with a flourish.

"Um, my eyesight's just fine." Ranma said, feeling mildly annoyed, as he looked down at the glasses.

Dumbledore nodded. "I am aware of that, but, after reading your introduction letter, you must be aware that there are a lot of cats at Hogwarts." Ranma gulped, having not actually thought of that, and the wizard noticed. "These," he continued, "are 'rose colored glasses,' of a sort." Seeing Ranma's look of incomprehension, he sighed. "They will modify what you see so that any felines you encounter appear as other animals through your eyes."

"Oh…" Ranma said, taking the glasses and looking at them uncertainly. Shrugging and deciding that they couldn't hurt, he slipped them over his ears. They didn't seem to block his sight at all, and he could barely feel the weight of them, but when he turned back to the Menagerie window, he couldn't see the kitten anymore, but rather a large rat in its place.

He took the glasses off for a moment, rotated them in his hands, and then grinned. "Hey, thanks. This'll help a lot, so long as I don't gotta touch one."

Dumbledore nodded, and the two continued towards the wand shop.

HR.

It had only taken a few minutes after the encounter with the cat for the two to get to the wand shop, but it had been a long time since then, and Ranma was starting to get irritated. It had started out well enough, he'd entered a store with rows of small thin boxes lined up against the walls, and the owner had introduced himself as Mr. Olivander.

When Dumbledore had introduced Ranma, Olivander had gotten right to work, handing the martial artist various wands and asking him to flick them in the air.

The results so far had varied between blowing up several book shelves and shooting sparks into the ceiling, both of which Ranma was relatively sure weren't supposed to happen. At the moment, he was standing and flicking one of the less explosive wands around in his fingers, waiting for the small man to return from the back room, where he was searching for another wand.

Looking around, he noticed that Dumbledore wasn't standing by the door, like he had been while Ranma had tested out most of the wands, and was about to go look for him when he heard the sound of Olivander's feet pounding across the floor.

"I… I think I may have found one, Mr. Saotome!" He said, exuberantly. "Try this one."

Ranma nodded, reluctantly taking the box he was offered. He noticed that it didn't have the same pattern on it as most of the man's other wand boxes, but shrugged this off as he withdrew the wand itself.

Letting it settle in his hand for a moment, the martial artist flicked it in exactly the same way he had done with the others. Much to his surprise, this time nothing blew up or got set on fire. Instead, the wand shot a tiny flicker of flame out about three inches, and seemed to warm slightly in Ranma's hand.

"Aha, that's it! That's the one!" Olivander said, excitedly. "Quite an interesting one, at that. Alder, Kneazle Hair, 11 Inches."

Ranma was about to ask what a Kneazle was, but dismissed it as unimportant. "So, how much?" He asked, instead.

That one's from a foreign wand maker, actually, so I'm afraid it's going to be 10 galleons." Olivander explained. "I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's all right." Ranma replied, digging around in his pocket for the money Tofu'd given him. Producing the correct amount, and wincing as he saw that it was about an eighth of his total, he paid the wand maker and exited his shop.

Looking down the street, he cursed as he noticed that the elderly Hogwarts Headmaster had disappeared somewhere. Still, he decided, he was pretty sure he could find the rest of the stuff he needed. Pulling the letter from Hogwarts, with the list of supplies, out of his pocket, he looked it over and started for a nearby shop that said something about second hand robes.

As he was about to enter, he glanced back down at the list. This proved to be a mistake, as his brief period of inattention sent him crashing into a walking pile of books. As the pile went flying, he noticed a rather frazzled looking dark red haired girl under them, and quickly moved to catch them all.

"Sorry about that." He muttered, though it couldn't be made out clearly past the one book he'd caught in his mouth. The girl just blinked at him, surprised, before bending down to pick up a piece of paper. "Oh, It's not a problem, but thank you for catching my books." She said, and looked down at the paper. Her eyes widening, she noted, "This is a first year's Hogwarts class list."

"Yeah." Ranma tried to say, but was still encumbered by the book in his mouth. Letting it drop, he managed to catch it in his arms with the rest of them. "Yeah." He tried again. "I've gotta buy my stuff for startin this year."

"Oh." The girl said, blinking at him in confusion. "But you look more like an upper-sixth than a first."

Ranma shrugged, causing the pile of books he was holding to briefly start tipping. "Long story." He answered.

"Hmm, well, if you really are a first year, then how about you tell me it and I'll help you gather your school things?" The girl said, smiling. "I'm a fourth year, and I still find myself getting lost around here sometimes."

"Um, thanks." Ranma said, then narrowed his eyes. "Hey, you don't know a guy named Genma, do ya? He never promised ya nothin?"

The girl looked at him oddly. "Um, no… why?"

"Not important." Ranma replied, mentally kicking himself for asking the question. The girl in front of him looked only fourteen or fifteen, and they were on another CONTINENT. It was rather doubtful that his father had promised her or her parents anything. "Well, in that case, it'd be good if ya could tell me where ta find some o' this stuff."

"Great, and I get someone to carry some of my books for me." The girl said, grinning. "My name's Lily, by the way."

"Ranma." The martial artist said, trying to be polite by bowing and causing one of Lily's books to fall off the pile and onto the ground. "And, erm, sorry 'bout that."

Lily laughed, and picked up the book. "It's fine. Now, you don't even have a set of robes yet?"

Ranma grimaced. "Was sorta hopin I could 'forget' those."

Lily laughed. "Believe it or not, they're pretty comfortable. Come on, let's hit Madam Malkins." Ranma shrugged, following the friendly girl and reflecting on how nice it was not to have any of the Fiancées around for once.

HR.

An hour later, Ranma was beginning to take carrying everything as some sort of balance exercise from hell. At the moment, he had one Cauldron, five sets of various types of robes, including Lily's new ones, and about fifteen books. True, Lily was carrying her fair share with a lot of weird 'potions supplies,' a couple of the heavier books and some other stuff. since Ranma couldn't even see her over all of the stuff piled on him, that was rather cold comfort.

"This is the last of it, right?" He asked, his voice coming out muffled from behind "The standard book of spells, grade 4."

"Yeah, I think so." The redhead next to him said. For her part, she was very glad she'd found the help, even if her helper was one of the oddest first years she'd ever seen. At first, she'd thought he was just really big, like Hagrid, the groundskeeper of Hogwarts, but then she'd heard his voice, and he'd told her his story about being a seventeen year old Japanese martial artist who'd just started manifesting magic a bit over a week ago.

Truthfully, she wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't for the almost complete incomprehension with which he came at the magical world. About the only thing that had gotten any major reaction out of him was a rack of love potions, to which his reaction was to run away… really, really fast.. In fact, she was still amazed at how fast he'd run.

Shaking free of her thoughts, the younger girl smiled back at the pile of stuff that was following her. "My parents are at the Leaky Cauldron waiting for me, so you can drop my things when we get there. Thanks for carrying them.

Ranma shrugged. "No problem. Thanks for helpin' me out." He responded, as she held the door open for him. He stumbled inside, being quickly enveloped by the dark atmosphere, and then set everything down, all being supported by the pewter cauldron on the bottom.

Lily sorted her items from Ranma's, and carried them in small piles over to a group of people that he assumed to be her family. Shrugging, Ranma grabbed his own possessions, and started up the stairs to his room.

Cracking the door open, he almost tripped over the dog as it dashed up to greet him. Carefully nudging it out of the way with one foot, he carried all of his school stuff into the room, dumping it on the dresser and being sure to obscure the view of the annoying mirror.

As he looked at the huge collection of books, clothes, quills, which he was going to have to somehow write with, bottles of ink and other small items, the martial artist sweat dropped. "Figures, most stuff I've ever owned in my life, 'n it's all for school."

Sighing, he let himself slump onto the bed. He didn't really want to admit it, but carrying all of that stuff had gotten surprisingly heavy, and he hadn't had a real lot to eat in the morning, compared to what Kasumi could usually dish out.

Letting himself fall back, he began to doze, and then fell the rest of the way to sleep.

END.

For anyone who didn't pick up the clue last chapter, (and don't worry if you didn't because I only left it there by accident,) yes, this fanfic takes place in the Marauders' era. Yes, I'm aware that Ranma's supposed to take place in the late 80s, but, well, this time it takes place earlier, okay? Just ignore Nabiki's anacronistic walkman and it works... sort of.

Also, I'm doing my best with the accents. I know how annoying it is to me when people over-emphasize canadian accents, and I'm using that rule. I only use words or inflections when I'm pretty sure they're apt. If you're british, I feel that flatter speach is better than me mangling your multi-dialect versions of english into tiny pieces.

And now, I'll be quiet. Hope you enjoyed, and please R&R!

Chapter 2, Summer Break

Chapter 2! Sorry again for it taking more than a day, usually when I'm 'on a role' like this I can do it in 24 hour segments, but perhaps the length will be consolation for you?

Chapter 2, Summer Break.

Ranma stood in front of the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, scowling out at the street in front of him. Next to him, a dog stood wagging its tail next to a large pile of miscellaneous items. "Well, this is just great," He muttered. Less than an hour ago, he'd been woken by the Cauldron's owner, Tom, who told him that he'd only rented his room for one night, and that he'd have to leave.

Ranma had tried to pay for another night, but he had been half a Galleon short, which, at the moment, made him really wish he'd bought his clothes at that second hand robe shop rather than Madam Malkin's.

Fishing in his pocket for his wallet, the pigtailed boy counted out all of the normal Yen he had thought to take with him, about 3,400. "It'll probably keep me fed for a while." He grumbled, thinking of how fun it would be to find a place to camp with all of this stuff.

Suddenly, his father's old admonitions that he should always travel as lightly as he could, just in case, rang in his head. "I hate it when the ol' man's right," He muttered, then sighed, ensuring his pack was settled, and then lifting whatever he couldn't fit into it into his arms. "C'mon, dog," He called, starting to walk down the street, the animal following.

It wasn't until about five minutes later that the pigtailed boy felt the prickling at the back of his neck that signified that he was being watched. He was walking down an empty, dimly lit section of street, and for a moment he hoped it was a mugger so he'd be justified in beating whoever it was to a pulp and swiping their wallet.

His hopes for some quick cash were dashed, however, within seconds as a purple robed figure walked slowly out of the shadow cast where a streetlight had apparently burnt out, holding a small device. "Dumbledore?" The boy asked, surprised. "Where the heck did ya go this mornin'?"

"Surely you realize that I have much to take care of, and you had already been set on your path," The old man said, smiling.

"Yeah, but ya coulda told me you were leaving," Ranma complained. "So, why're ya back now?"

The old man seemed not to be bothered by the younger's show of disrespect, simply nodding. "Tofu asked me to secure a place for you to stay for the rest of the summer break," He explained. "I have talked to a family who are willing to allow you access to their guest room for the next month."

Ranma blinked. "But, can't ya just take me back to Tokyo, 'n I can stay at home 'till the year starts?" He asked.

Dumbledore shook his head. "With your magic in the state it is in now, that wouldn't be advisable," He answered. "From what Tofu has told me, you would be under a lot of stress there." Then, the man smiled. "Besides, I'm sure you'd like a relaxing break before the beginning of your schooling."

"Yeah, guess you're right," Ranma replied, reluctantly. "So, um, who volunteered to let me stay with 'em?"

"When we determined that you were a Wizard, I asked one of my fellows to track your family," Dumbledore explained. Seeing Ranma stiffen, he went on. "No, not you and your father in Japan, though we do know about a lot of that. Rather, links to other branches, specifically in England or Scotland. We found one with a young child who's already attending Hogwarts, and I approached them this afternoon about allowing you to stay with them."

Ranma blinked. "I got family here?" He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd never met more of his family than his parents, and even his Mother, who he respected much more than the old man, had a few screws loose. He wasn't sure if he could deal with a whole group of his relatives, especially if they were from Genma's side.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, quite nice people, for the most part." His face darkened for a moment, but Ranma didn't seem to notice. "And, since they live rather far from here, I have come to bring you to them via side-along apparation."

Ranma winced. Tofu had used Side-along apparation, some form of magical teleport, to bring him to the Japanese ministry of magic, where they'd used something called the 'flew network' to get to the leaky cauldron. The process was, to say the least, very unpleasant, especially for someone who relied on keeping his equilibrium as much as Ranma did.

Noticing the expression on the young martial artist's face, Dumbledore looked at him, concerned. "Are you feeling well?"

"Um, yeah. I'll be fine," Ranma said, and then dropped the items he'd been carrying for a moment, in order to pick up the dog in one arm. Balancing the supplies rather precariously in the other, he nodded at the old man. "I'm ready."

Dumbledore noted that Ranma's arms were full, resting his own hand on the younger boy's shoulder. Clicking the small item Ranma had noticed in his other hand beforehand, a small globe of light flew out of it towards the street lamp that had formerly been dark, and the two vanished with a loud CRACK right before the street lit itself up again.

HR.

When Ranma's head stopped spinning, she found herself standing on a rain drenched street, her face still tinted a pale green. "I really hate doing that," She muttered, causing a chuckle from Dumbledore.

Looking up, she saw that she'd dropped her belongings when she'd appeared, but they were somehow hovering a few feet above the ground, and the rain didn't seem to be getting them wet.

Looking over, she saw the old man's hand raised. "Um, thanks for that." She said, slowly.

Dumbledore didn't speak, just nodding and smiling reassuringly, so Ranma took a moment to take in her new surroundings. As she'd noted before, it was raining, though not particularly heavily, and she was standing on a sidewalk, running down a street with squat, low-slung stone houses that looked at least forty years old.

"Where are we?" She asked, confused.

"It's a small industrial town in the north country," Dumbledore explained. "The residents call it Spinner's End. The house where you will be staying is directly in front of us."

"Thanks," Ranma said, and looked up at the door in front of her. Walking forward, she winced, knowing that the last time she'd entered a place she'd been planning to stay at in her cursed form, she'd had a statue smashed over her head. Still, she wasn't likely to get any warm water, or even be able to stay male, in the rain, so she sighed, squared her shoulders, and knocked.

There were some sounds of someone moving around from inside the house, and soon the door opened to reveal a short, kind-faced blonde haired woman standing there. "Oh, are you the new student Professor Dumbledore told us about?" She asked, surprised. "Come on in out of that rain."

"Thanks," Ranma said, entering the house, and starting to slip off her shoes. She looked for a set of house slippers, until she remembered that the English didn't do that.

Behind her, Dumbledore entered as well, Ranma's school supplies now hovering in front of him as if he had them on a cart, quickly followed by the dog, who shook itself thoroughly in order to get its fur dry.

"That's a very nice pup you have there," The blonde woman said, looking down at the small creature.

"Thanks," Ranma said, shrugging. "It just won't stop following me."

The woman giggled. "Well, that just means it's loyal. Professor, would you like to come in and have some tea?" She asked, changing focuses to the older man.

"Yes, that would be wonderful," The professor said, and the three proceeded into a small living room, with a roaring fire off to one side. Sitting in a chair and working on some sort of wood carving was an auburn haired man, who looked up when the group came in. "Hmm, Ann, is that Dumbledore and the boy?" He asked.

"It seems so," the woman who'd welcomed Ranma said, "But it appears the boy isn't a boy." She stepped aside, letting Ranma step into the room, and the redhead reached up to scratch the back of her neck.

"Actually, this is, erm…" She trailed off, as she saw the other side of the room clearly for the first time. Sitting at a table, and looking excited and irritated, respectively, were two girls, one looking a few years younger than the other. "Lily?" She finished, surprised, causing the excited one to look at her, confused.

The younger girl blinked a couple of times at what she saw. Professor Dumbledore had come to their house, shortly after they'd gotten home from picking up her supplies, and told them that there was a family member who'd just started at Hogwarts that needed a place to stay. He hadn't said anything else, saying that he'd rather let their first meeting be 'surprising,' which sounded just like something Dumbledore would do, but now there was a girl standing in front of her who knew her name.

"Do I know…" She started, while looking the girl over more carefully. She had felt that the other redhead was somewhat familiar when she'd first walked in, but hadn't placed her from anywhere in particular. Now though, as she looked her over, a thought that she would have considered absolutely bonkers only three or four years earlier entered her mind.

The clothing was right, and so was the hairstyle, even if it was the wrong color. Also, those Chinese silks weren't exactly common wear in the English countryside, even in summer. "Ranma?" She asked, rather uncertainly.

The pigtailed redhead nodded sheepishly, and was about to try and explain again, when Lily hopped up, dashed across the room, and started looking her over. "Are you a Metamorph Magus?" She asked, and then grabbed one of Ranma's arms, inspecting it carefully.

"Lily! That's very rude!" The blonde haired woman, apparently her mother, exclaimed.

Ranma looked a little sheepish. "Well, at least she didn't grope me," She muttered, "And what's a Metamorph Magus?"

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and Ranma could have sworn that the old man's lips were trying to twitch into a smirk as he talked. "Ranma is afflicted with a strange, and very strong curse that causes uncontrolled gender shifts when he contacts different temperatures of water." He explained. "Quite an interesting condition, actually. The ministry has tentatively classified him as an Animagus, not a Metamorph Magus, due to the fact that he only assumes one other form."

"Oh…" Lily said, blinking. "A human Animagus? Wow, that's pretty neat."

Ranma blinked. She wasn't sure what an Anime Magus, or whatever, was, but she decided not to mention it. "It's handy sometimes, but I'd really like ta get rid of it," She grimaced. "Anyways, I'm sorry 'bout showin' up like this. It was just really rainin' out there."

Lily's father just snorted. "From what Lily's told us about curses, you really couldn't help it," He said. "Don't worry about it."

"So, you will allow Ranma to stay here?" Dumbledore asked, and Lily's father was about to respond, when another voice butted in.

"Wait, another one?" The other girl who had been sitting at the table with Lily snapped, drawing their attention to her. Her mother gave her a warning look, but the girl plowed on anyways. "And this one doesn't even know if it's a boy or a girl?"

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "I'm a guy," She growled, though she did this so instinctively that she spoke it in Japanese.

"And it can't even speak English?" The girl sneered.

"Petunia, that wasn't very polite!" The girl's mother snapped, glaring at her.

The younger blonde, now identified as Petunia, just sniffed. "I'm only telling the truth," She snapped.

Ranma bit back what she wanted to say. She'd had to deal with this from some people at school, especially the girls, before, so she just shrugged. "If she's got a big problem with it, I can leave my school stuff here, 'n find a spot to set up camp," She offered.

"Set up camp?" Lily asked, shocked. "As in, camp in a field or something all summer?"

Ranma nodded. "Done it before," She explained.

"No, that won't be necessary," Lily's father rumbled. "You seem a good enough person, and after traveling all the way from Japan to go to school here, we aren't going to be the ones to stop you."

Lily blinked. "Dad, how did you know she, erm, he is from Japan?"

"I understand the language." The older man explained. "Or, at least, some of it. My father had a strange fascination with the place. At any rate, I am well aware that HE said 'I am a man' in Japanese."

"Hmm," Dumbledore said. "Well, now that that's settled, Mrs. Evans, I hope you don't mind if I decline your offer of tea for today? There are things I have to take care of at Hogwarts," After receiving a quick nod from Lily's mother, the old man nodded back, and then vanished from the living room with a loud crack.

Ranma jumped, half expecting a bullet hole in the nearest wall, and Lily couldn't help but grin. "You should have seen how high I jumped when I first heard someone apparate," She laughed.

Ranma just blinked, before Lily's mother tapped her on the shoulder. "Dear, let me show you your room and help you move your things up there." She said, and then thought for a moment. "And I believe you said that this 'curse' of yours is triggered by water of different temperatures, would you like any?"

Ranma looked over at the woman, surprised at how nice she was being. The redhead wasn't sure if she could do the same if some random person were thrown into her house, though she supposed Dumbledore had gotten permission before bringing her. "Nah, it's okay." She said. "I can get the water I need out of hot water taps, but if ya show me where I'm supposed ta stay, I can get my stuff there."

The woman nodded, and waited while Ranma gathered all of her possessions before leading her out of the living room. Behind the two, Lily was rather shocked that she'd suddenly gotten a cousin, or something similar, out of nowhere. Her father whistled. "Damn, that's a strong one," He muttered, thinking of having Ranma help out doing chores around the place for the rest of the summer.

Next to her sister, Petunia just sat, glaring at the new complication that had been added to her life.

HR.

Akane Tendo sat in her bedroom, looking out over the buildings of the Nerima ward. It had been over two weeks since Ranma had vanished, Dr. Tofu saying something about him having to master some new and dangerous technique. Well, it had been magic rather than martial arts this time, but it was always the same, or so she liked to try and tell herself. He'd gone on training trips before… but they'd never been as long as this one was looking to be. Ranma would be gone for at least two years, almost straight, even if he did come back for the occasional visit.

Grunting in annoyance, the youngest child of Soun Tendo stood from the chair at her desk, flopping down on her bed and pulling a set of barbells out of a small shelf that was built into the side, usually for storing things like diaries. Pumping them, she tried to tell herself that she wasn't bothered about Ranma's disappearance, or the fact that the Fiancées had started prowling around her to try and find out where he'd gone since.

Shampoo wasn't that bad, as her great grandmother had apparently chewed her out for the damage done at the wedding, but Ukyo, as an annoyance factor, was quickly growing to the point where Akane would like nothing more than to break her own portable grill over her head, and if she didn't know, as annoying as it was to admit, that she wouldn't win in a fight, she would likely have tried.

Raising the weights in a rhythmic series of repetitions, Akane lost herself in nothingness for a few minutes, until an odd clicking noise echoed through her window. "If that's someone breaking in…" She growled, putting the barbells down on her bed, and getting up. Looking out the window, however, she was surprised to see that a rather large bird was sitting on the other side, looking at her steadily.

"What the…" She asked, sliding the window open. Immediately, the bird hopped in and onto her desk, and Akane had an irrational fear that the phoenix people had come back to kidnap her. No, though, this bird wasn't like the ones that had taken her last time. It looked a lot like an owl, though she couldn't identify the species.

As she engaged in a staring contest with the bird, it shifted its weight onto one leg, extending the other. Akane looked down at the appendage, noticing that there was a scroll of paper tied to it. Rather bemusedly, she carefully untied the scroll, though not without provoking a few pained and reproachful hoots from the animal. Laying it flat on her desk, her eyes widened when she read the first line, in unmistakably horrible Katakana.

"Hey, Akane. Told you I'd write. Pretty neat way of sending letters, huh? Best of all, it's got no return address so the others can't track it back to me and try and hunt me down."

"I haven't gotten to that school Tofu told me about yet. Apparently, the term doesn't start until next month, but the doc figured I shouldn't be hanging around Nerima with uncontrolled magic, or I'd turn Ryoga into a piggy bank, or something. Anyways, I'm doing okay. Guess what? I found some family I can actually get along with."

"Apparently, my family on Mom's side originally comes from over here, and I'm staying with my aunt and uncle, as well as their two kids. Lily's nice, but she's really obsessed with the whole magic school thing, and she's actually forcing me to study before school starts. Now that ain't fair, is it?"

"Petunia, that's Lily's sister, really doesn't seem to like me much. She doesn't talk to me, and whenever she does I'm that 'freak.' About as friendly as you after I insult your cooking, but I KNOW I haven't done anything this time."

"How's stuff going over there? I hope everyone's leaving you alone, but I really doubt it. I looked over some of Lily's calendars, and I won't get a real long break until Christmas, but I'll be back then. If you want to write back, just write your letter on a piece of paper and tie it to the owl's leg before sending it back. Oh, and get Kasumi to feed it before you send it, okay? It's Lily's, and I promised her that it'd get good care when I sent it to you guys."

Akane blinked. Had Ranma just sent her a letter by way of an Owl? Granted, she'd received messages by way of everything from arrows to incompetent Ninjas, but this was just a little surreal. "So, you want some food?" She asked, blinking at the owl. Somehow, as she saw it perk up, she thought it understood her. Uncertainly, she stretched out her arm and the bird hopped on, using it as a perch, though not digging its claws in too deep. "Better go take you to Kasumi, then I can write my response," She muttered, walking from her room.

Unknown to the blue-black haired girl, once she'd left the room, a small purple cat slipped in through the window, studying the letter she'd left sitting on the desk. It read the thing carefully, memorizing every word, then slipped back out the open window, ready to report its findings.

HR.

"Lumos!" Ranma called, holding his wand in front of his face and squinting at it in annoyance, willing something to happen. "Nope, still nothin'," He muttered, glaring at the length of wood.

"Well, you've only been trying for a week, "Lily said, diplomatically. "It took me about a month to get anything but red and gold sparks."

Ranma shrugged. "And why, exactly, do ya want me ta study this stuff before I get to school?" He asked, flipping his wand in his hand.

"Well, you're above seventeen. It means you can practice magic outside of school." Lily looked wistful. "I really wish I could do that, but if you learn quickly, then you can show me what spells look and react like even when I'm not at school."

"Ah, so yer just usin' me, eh?" Ranma asked, smirking at her.

"Hey, that's not what I meant at all!" The dark red haired girl said, grimacing at him. "Besides, you told me you're going to Hogwarts so you can get control over your magic, so I thought I'd help."

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm grateful, I just gotta complain 'bout this every once in a while, or I'd go insane. A lot o' this doesn't make sense the way what I'm used to working does," Ranma admitted, reluctantly.

"I still don't understand how you think jumping twenty feet without a lightening charm makes sense," Lily grumbled, then raised her hand when she saw that Ranma was about to try and explain again, a thing that both gave her a headache and annoyed him severely, because he simply couldn't articulate some of the concepts he knew in English. "Please, don't explain," She laughed. "Can we try the first spell again?"

Ranma sighed, and nodded. Raising his arm, he focused on a small tin can that was set up on a box in the middle of the Evans' yard, where he and Lily had been practicing. Luckily for them, the yard was walled in by a high fence, which meant that those who weren't supposed to see what was going on wouldn't. Flicking his wand at the can he was focusing on, he called "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The two waited for a moment, but the can refused to move, let-alone levitate, as the spell was supposed to make it do. "Nope, don't think I've got it yet." Ranma muttered. "Ya sure I can't just blast it off?"

Lily laughed, understanding the older boy's frustration. "Here, I think you may not have the flick right." She said, grabbing his hand. "You move the wand like this, see?" As she swished Ranma's arm, and therefore the wand, through the air, Ranma felt something that he'd thought he'd gotten away from after leaving Nerima.

Reacting almost instantly, he grabbed Lily, jumping and turning in mid-air to land on the opposite side of the can and box from what he'd felt. "Ranma, what on earth are you doing?!" The redhead asked, indignantly.

Ranma didn't answer, putting her down and squaring off in a defensive position. "Hey, you, come on out!" He called, pointing at the bushes near the house.

Almost five seconds later, the bushes rustled, and Lily saw a pale face poke through them, its black hair having visibly caught several leaves. "Sev?" She asked, unbelieving. "I thought you'd gone on vacation this summer?"

"You know this guy?" Ranma asked, watching the face, still all he could see of the person, carefully.

"Yeah, he's one of my friends. Sev, come on out of that bush, it's great to see you!" Lily said, happily.

The face nodded, and eventually a thin body, wrapped in a dark cloak of some sort, extruded itself from the bushes. The boy who was revealed was very frail looking, with skin that looked like he barely ever saw the sun. "Hello, Evans," He said, quietly, in a tone that put Ranma vaguely on edge.

As the pigtailed boy surveyed him, he could have sworn that the other was quietly slipping a wand into his robes, from where he'd previously been holding it in his hands. "Who is this?" Ranma noticed that as he examined 'Sev,' the other's eyes also flicked over him, assessing him quickly and rather competently. Still, the way he seemed to become dismissive after he'd finished told the martial artist that he'd evidently come to the wrong conclusion.

"Oh, this is my cousin, Ranma. He's come over to attend Hogwarts," Lily said.

Sev seemed to relax infinitesimally at that pronouncement, and gave Ranma something that almost seemed like a smile. "Cousin?" He asked. "It's good to meet you. I am Severus Snape, one of Lily's classmates."

"Uh, yeah," Ranma said, not quite sure how to take the mixed signals he was getting from the other. "Any reason ya were pointing yer wand at me before ya came outta the bushes, though?"

"You what?" Lily asked, giving her old friend a very strange glance.

Severus shook his head. "It's not important, I thought…" He shot a glance at Lily, then looked away. "It's nothing. So, Ranma… did you transfer to Hogwarts from another school? Your name doesn't sound British."

"Nah, just found out about this whole magic school thing," Ranma answered, casually.

"Another one," Severus said, frowning darkly, and getting a sharp look from Lily.

"Now don't start on THAT again," She said, and her glare actually had some hostility in it. Severus looked as if he wanted to say something, but bit it back. "I'm going to go in and get some drinks for us, and now that we're done with spell practice for today, I'll let Inu out," She said, walking away.

"Wish ya wouldn't call 'im that," Ranma muttered, wincing. Somehow, over the past two weeks, his dog had gained a name, as Lily found out that he simply called it Dog, or Inu, when he was distracted. Naturally, she'd started calling it that, as well, and decided to keep doing so even after he'd explained that all Inu meant was "Dog" in Japanese.

"What, it's a cute name!" She replied, over her shoulder, as she walked for the house.

"Yeah, 'n I bet you'd like P-chan, too," Ranma replied, but she didn't hear. Once Lily entered the house, he walked over to Severus. "Lemme guess, ya like her, right?"

"What?" Severus snapped, glaring at him.

"Look, I'll put it this way, I deal with enough of this crap at home that I've sorta got a sixth sense for the glairs of jealous people," Ranma said, flatly. "Ya like her, it's obvious. I'm her cousin, and I've got enough girl trouble as it is. I ain't gunna interfere with you, or with anyone else that goes after her, unless you or they do something REALLY stupid. Got it?"

Severus was gaping at him as if he'd just been told that he was about to be attacked by a herd of rabid ferrets. "Guh?" He asked, stupidly.

"Ya heard me," Ranma said. "Understand?"

"Yes…" Severus replied, regaining some of his composure. "I understand."

"Great," Ranma said, then leaned close to whisper in his ear. "So, ya think you can distract her so she doesn't keep tryin to make me study while I'm tryin to relax?"

Severus sweatdropped.

From inside the house, where she was coming out with a pitcher of lemon aid, Lily smiled as she saw that Severus and Ranma were apparently getting along. Using her foot, she nudged the back door open, letting Inu run past her. As she approached the two boys, however, she stumbled slightly, and a bit of the liquid she was carrying sloshed over the edge of its container.

Inevitably, it found its way to Ranma, and Severus was looking for those ferrets again.

HR.

The rest of the break passed rather quickly. Lily did continue to insist on practicing spell work with Ranma, which had actually started to show some good results with Severus to, very reluctantly, help, but otherwise it had been one of the most relaxing times in his entire life.

So much so, in fact, that he now found himself quickly checking over his shoulder every once in a while, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop, and Ryoga was going to smash through the living room wall to challenge him, umbrella raised.

Fortunately for the Evans' repair bills, the summer was strangely lost boy-free, though Ranma did have to wonder where the other martial artist had gotten to. Today wasn't the time to think about that, though. Today, he was going to be catching the train to go to Hogwarts with Lily and Severus, which he felt was both a good and bad thing.

He'd received a short note from Akane, telling him what was going on in Nerima since he'd left, and that alone had made him think that leaving that place to boil over for two years, with only infrequent visits, was a bad idea.

Still, he had to gain control over his magic. Shaking this off, he checked once again through the small trunk that Mr. Evans had given him to supplement his backpack's carrying capacity, and then picked it up. "C'mon, dog." He muttered, looking over to his bed, where the animal was lazily snoozing under a sunbeam in a way that reminded him not a bit of a cat, definitely not.

The dog reluctantly got up, and gave him a wounded look, but he ignored it as he started for the door. When he got out to the landing, he saw Lily standing there, her trunk sitting beside her. "So, you ready for your first year?" She asked, excitedly.

"Yeah, but I don't get why you're so excited about MY first year at this school," Ranma replied, looking at her oddly.

"I've got no younger siblings, so I thought I wouldn't have any first years I could tease for their reactions to the castle without getting in trouble," Lily giggled, prompting an annoyed glance from Ranma. "Dad's got the car out front, and he'll drive us to the nearest station, then we head to London."

Ranma nodded, and started down the stairs. "So, um, where's Petunia?" He offered, unsure if he really should ask, as the relationship between the two sisters seemed a rather sensitive subject.

Lily looked uncomfortable. "She took off to a friend's place… did the same thing last year." She said, looking down.

"Oh…" Ranma said. "Um, then let's get goin', okay?" He continued, gamely trying to change the subject.

Lily was apparently working along the same lines, as she immediately burst into another smile and nodded, trying to hoist her trunk up in an arm and carry it down. When she failed with an exasperated grunt of effort, Ranma smirked and reached over, grabbing it for her. "You should really work out more."

She just glared at his back, as the two headed for Mr. Evans' car, and from there, to Hogwarts.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki struggled to make his way up a 45 degree slope in what, to him, resembled nothing so much as a mine shaft. Normally, a slope like this was no problem, but given the fact that he'd been stuck in here for weeks by this point, the fatigue was beginning to show.

"Damn you, Ranma…" He croaked, hauling himself hand-over-hand up a set of train tracks in the center of the tunnel. "I'm gunna…" He stopped in his well-worn diatribe, however, when he felt something rumbling through the rock. "Wha?" He asked, looking up and blinking.

Several seconds later, a light shot out of the darkness in front of him, coming down towards him. "Oh, thank god, other people!" He cried, happily. As the light got closer, however, and didn't slow down, Ryoga started to get worried.

Gulping, he pulled himself to his feet, and squinted down the tunnel… just as the cart plowed into him. Having been hit in the stomach, all of the air got knocked out of the lost boy, and he flipped forward, landing with a loud crash into the bottom of the cart.

"What the bloody 'ell?" came an angry, gravelly voice, causing Ryoga to try and blink the stars out of his eyes. "What do we got here then?"

The last thing Ryoga saw before letting himself pass out from pain and exhaustion was one of the ugliest faces he'd ever seen, attached to a rather short man holding a lamp.

"Well, this is just wonderful, all the paperwork," The Goblin muttered.

END.

Spoiler!

Notes: I can hear the incendiary ammo being loaded already, but let me assure you of one thing. Unlike said character in the original books, I don't really think it's fair to vilify someone for actions they have not taken yet.

At the moment, Severus Snape is just a young wizard with a bit of a thing for the dark arts. He hasn't reported the contents of the prophecy to Voldemort, complete or not, he hasn't killed Dumbledore, and he hasn't tortured Harry for six years straight.

If, however, in the future of this text, he does do said things, then rest assured I'll treat him as is apt for those crimes.

Oh, and if the incendiaries are for something other than that, well, fire away, I suppose.

Please R&R!

Chapter 3, Arrival

And chapter 3! Wow, I don't have much to say lately, do I?

Chapter 3, Arrival.

Ranma looked down at the ticket that had come with his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and then back up at his two traveling companions. "Okay, someone playin' a joke on me?" He asked, irritated. "Platform Nine and Three Quarters?"

Lily smiled, while Severus muttered something that neither of the other two heard. "No, it's not a joke, there really is one," The redhead explained. "It's hidden from normal Muggles by a charm."

Ranma frowned. "Right… so ya wanna tell me where it is?" To his surprise, the girl started off immediately, Severus following behind her. He trailed along behind them, noticing several other people with large trunks, a few of them in some very odd outfits. He quickly returned his attention to his two companions, however, when they approached the ticket counters for the platforms.

Lily started striding purposefully towards a metallic barrier that was set up between two of the counters, and Ranma was about to call a warning when she vanished. He looked around for her for a moment, before hearing Severus clearing his throat.

The other boy was looking at him in mild disapproval, which seemed to be a constant part of his expression. "Are you coming?" He asked, before turning and walking at the very same piece of empty wall.

As he disappeared, Ranma looked between the section of wall and the entrance to the station, then shrugged. It wasn't like it would hurt him much if he plowed into the wall. He took several long steps before phasing through the wall as if it wasn't there, only to emerge on an old-fashioned-looking station platform, which seemed to be packed with people.

There were many small animals walking around by their feet, from dogs to squirrels, and at least a dozen Owls hooting at each other from cages that sat on top of trunks. He looked back for a moment, ensuring that the dog had followed him through the barrier, then started scanning the crowd for his cousin and her friend. Unfortunately for him, the two had been completely swallowed up.

Frowning, he started for the large, red-painted steam engine that sat at the edge of the platform, where most of the crowd was heading. He got aboard with very little difficulty, only bumping into a short woman with a crooked looking pointed hat. "Erm, sorry," he muttered, but she just replied with an annoyed glare.

Shrugging that off, the young martial artist started walking through the train, looking for Lily, Severus, or at least a place to sit down. The first couple of cars had been locked off, and everything behind them seemed full.

Frowning, he entered the sixth car, still not having found his two traveling companions. "Hey, any of you guys seen Lily Evans or Severus Snape?" He asked, noting that the four boys in the compartment looked about the same age as his cousin.

"Huh?" One of them, a boy with untidy black hair and glasses, asked as he looked up from a conversation with his friend in the next seat over. Looking Ranma over, he raised an eyebrow. "Why're you looking for Evans?"

Ranma shrugged. "I did come here with her and Severus, figured I should at least find 'em to reassure them I didn't get lost, or something."

The boy with the glasses narrowed his eyes. "Why would you come to school with Evans?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Hey James, you're acting all jealous." His friend, another boy with hair that fell to his shoulders, spoke up.

"Shut up, Sirius," The boy in the glasses, now identified as James, said, angrily. The other just laughed, but a third boy on the other side of the compartment cleared his throat.

"Miss Evans usually sits nearer the back of the train," He offered, having just raised his face from a book to speak.

"Um, thanks," Ranma said, nodding at the third boy, who had brown hair, with an unusual grey streak at one temple. As the boy nodded and he was about to leave, James spoke up.

"Hey, just a minute here. You look like a seventh year, and I've never seen you before," He said, causing Ranma to frown at him. "And now you're looking for Evans? I don't like this."

"I just started, actually," Ranma said, and then headed for the compartment door. James was opening his mouth to say something, when Ranma continued. "And I gotta go."

As the compartment door swung shut, the younger boy grimaced. "Okay, guys, you can't tell me that wasn't weird."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Says he just started," He said, then laughed. "Maybe he's got some giant blood in 'im!"

"Y… you really think so?" A smaller, slightly fatter boy stuttered from where he was sitting next to the brown haired one.

"Always possible, Peter," Sirius said, smirking. "Don't worry though, this one probably won't try and eat you."

"I wish you wouldn't tell him things like that," The brown haired boy grunted, annoyed.

"Aw, come on Remus, it's all in good fun," James said, snickering, but Peter didn't look too amused. "But like I was saying, that guy was pretty strange, and he was looking for Evans and Snivellus. I dunno if I like that."

Remus grunted again. "Seemed all right to me, if a little confused."

James frowned darkly, only to be poked in the ribs by Sirius. "You feeling all right, mate? You really DO sound like you're worried about Evans."

James' dark frown turned to a glare as he looked at his best friend. "Say that again, and I'll hex you."

"Aw, Potter's got a girlfriend, Potter's got a girlfriend!" Sirius chanted, causing Remus to look at his two friends like they had gone insane, which really wasn't much of a change from the norm, and stick his nose back into his book.

HR.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Ranma heard Lily's slightly worried voice, as he entered the last car at the end of the train.

He just shrugged, slipping his luggage under a seat and falling into it. "Wasn't exactly easy findin' you two in the crowd," He muttered, absently petting Inu as it jumped up into his arms. "So, how long's this train ride gunna take, anyways?"

"About six hours," Lily answered, casually. Seeing Ranma's grimace, she smiled. "I've got my charms book out of my luggage, if you want to…"

"No, I'm fine," Ranma said, quickly. "I think I'd rather stare up at the ceiling."

Lily sighed, and from next to her Ranma could have sworn he'd heard Severus snicker. Leaning back, he started to watch the countryside fly by his window. He'd only taken trains very rarely in Japan, and most of them had been the Tokyo subways, so this was a rather refreshing experience.

The three spent a good deal of time just sitting in silence, Lily and Snape both reading while Ranma relaxed, until a plump young woman pushing a cart entered the car. On a tray in front of her, she was pushing a large amount of candy, and not much real food, but this still caused Ranma to perk up.

"Anything off the cart?" She asked, looking around. Ranma surveyed it, and picked up a bag of what looked like jelly beans and a bottle of some orange liquid.

After the woman had served Lily and Severus, the former of whom had bought something that seemed to be moving around in its pack, the pigtailed boy studied the pack of jellybeans, noticing that the label on them was rather unusual. "Every flavor?" He asked, curiously.

Lily looked up from her moving package and nodded. "Yeah. I'd be careful with those. They can get pretty disgusting."

Ranma shrugged this off, tearing the pack of beans open and taking one out. chewing it, he grimaced. "Wow, every flavor is right, I think this one's Akane's cooking."

"Akane, she's your Fiancée, right?" Lily asked, curiously.

"Yeah." Ranma replied, offering the next bean he took out to Inu. The dog sniffed it for a moment, then chomped down on it, making a noise of enjoyment in the back of his throat. "Her food could probably knock most people over at five feet," He smirked.

Noting that the dog had liked the bean he'd given it, Ranma searched for one of the same color, a strange pale green. Biting into it, his face scrunched up. "Traitor," He muttered at the animal, half-joking.

It just raised a paw in a 'what can you do' sort of gesture, before rolling onto its side and going to sleep.

HR.

The next few hours passed rather un-eventfully, though Ranma was desperate for something more substantial to eat than a bag of randomly flavored beans by the time the sun started going down. The landscape out the window had changed several times during the trip, from open field to mountainous terrain and everything in-between, but at the latest shift in scenery, Lily had stowed her book.

This jolted Ranma out of his half-asleep daze, and caused him to look at her oddly. "What's up?" He asked, still sleepy.

"We'll be getting to school soon," Lily explained. "We should probably change into our robes, they'll want us in them for the welcome feast."

Ranma suddenly found himself grinning like an idiot. "Welcome feast?"

Lily nodded, smiling back. "I think you'll have a heart attack when you see it," she said, grabbing her robe from her bag and heading for the door. "Next car over's got only girls, so I'll change there."

Ranma nodded, and pulled his pack out from under the seat, rummaging through it to find his uniform. Severus didn't move, having decided to wear the thing pretty well all summer anyways, and therefore already having it on.

Finding it, the pigtailed boy slipped it on, glaring at the pants and sweater-vest combination that went on under the main robe. "This'll be fun if I get splashed." He complained, straightening his collar and testing his range of movement.

He'd tried the robes on at Lily's place over the summer, trying to get used to them, but he still found the way they could occasionally catch the feet really annoying. "Can't believe you chose to wear this thing all summer."

Severus just shrugged, causing the pigtailed boy to frown back at him. "Y'know, yer way too quiet." He observed.

"And I find that you talk overly much." Severus said, coolly. "So perhaps it balances out?"

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "Gee, thanks," He said, as Lily knocked on the compartment's door. "Ya can come in!" He called, quickly.

"Good, because we're almost there," Lily said, and then grabbed Ranma's robe, starting to fuss with it to get the wrinkles out of it.

"Yeash, what are you, my mom?" The pigtailed boy said, pulling away from her.

Lily laughed as the train started pulling to a stop, then looked over at her trunk and sighed. "I hate this part," She said, thinking of having to haul the thing all the way to the carriages. "You're lucky, first years get a ride across the lake with Hagrid."

"Lake?" Ranma asked, going pale.

"Yeah, it's sort of a tradition." Lily explained. "Don't worry though, you'll be fine unless the giant squid shows up."

Strangely, the thought of a giant squid didn't seem to make Ranma any more nervous than he already was, but Lily simply shrugged that off. As she and Severus got off the train, Ranma helping them hoist their trunks to the ground, the long haired boy looked at her oddly.

"Why did you mention the giant squid?" He asked, softly. "That idiotic animal couldn't hurt a fly."

Lily shrugged. "Was trying to scare him," She answered. "Guess it didn't work."

"Evans, I believe you are hanging around Potter far too much," Severus sniffed, irritated.

"Hey, that was a low blow!" Lily giggled, as the two pulled their trunks towards the carriage that would take them to the school.

"Perfectly warranted, however," Severus returned, getting an annoyed look from the redhead.

HR.

A short distance away, Ranma was feeling rather awkward as the largest boy among a crowd of eleven year olds, but tried not to show it as he heard a voice calling something in an accent so thick that he could barely understand it. "Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!"

Looking over, the boy saw a man that truly towered over everyone around him. He was even bigger than the Dojo Destroyer he and Akane had fought a couple of years back, and about as wide. Still, the man seemed to exude a sort of happy harmlessness that caused Ranma to drop his guard.

Walking towards him with the other first years, the pigtailed martial artist noticed that he was standing by a dock, which extended a short way into a dark lake. Gulping, Ranma turned his face to the sky and muttered a short prayer to the Kami that, for once, his curse wouldn't be triggered at the most inappropriate time.

"Arright then, Firs' years, pick a boat and climb inta it!" The giant man roared, gesturing to a fleet of rickety looking wooden boats that sat, bobbing slowly, next to the dock.

Ranma sighed, leaping over the gap easily and landing in the first boat he saw, rocking it slightly with the weight of himself and his things. Moments later, three younger people clambered in, a boy and two girls. They all looked at Ranma oddly, but didn't say anything for the time being.

"Allright then, Everybody got a boat?" came the booming voice of the large man, before the small water craft that Ranma was in drifted slowly away from the dock and out into the water. Ranma looked on, nervously, as he saw that there were at least ten other boats gliding next to his, but was distracted when the kids who were sitting with him gasped.

Looking at them, and then tracking their gazes, the rather world-weary martial artist had a hard time not gasping himself. The boats had come around a large rock outcropping, and on the other side he could see a huge, stone building with dozens of twinkling lights in its windows.

It looked like a few of the castles he'd seen while traveling, but it was huge, and had to be over ten floors high, which was damned impressive for a building of that type. He was disturbed from his admiring observation of the castle, which he guessed was Hogwarts, as the giant's voice boomed out again. "Watch yer heads!"

Turning quickly, Ranma saw that the boats were heading for a small tunnel in the cliff on which the castle was set, and instinctively ducked just before he would have cracked his skull on a rock.

They drifted through a tunnel for a long time, before they came out inside of some sort of dimly lit dock. As they got off of the boats, Ranma looked back at the water, astonished. He'd just traveled across a lake, one that was, obviously, full of water, and hadn't gotten wet once. "Thank you, Kami," He wispered, not knowing that the boats had an anti-tipping and water repelling charm cast on them.

HR.

Several minutes later, Ranma found himself and the other first years in a huge, well-lit entrance hall. In front of them, a very stern looking woman stood, wearing full dress robes including the pointed hat, which Ranma thought usually looked silly but somehow managed to look intimidating on her.

"Brought the firs' years, Professor McGonagall," The giant said, in a way that seemed almost ceremonial.

"Thank you, Hagrid," The woman said, calmly. Nodding, the giant, now identified as Hagrid, stomped off out the main doors and the woman looked out over the crowd. For a moment, her eyes rested on Ranma and she raised an eyebrow, but she didn't comment. "Hello, and welcome to Hogwarts," She said, and Ranma started to look around.

He listened to her speech with half an ear, noticing the large doors to the side of the hall and the muted murmur of conversation he could hear through them. He figured that was where everyone else had gone, and was proven right a moment later as McGonagall turned, walking through the doors and revealing, just for a moment, a large hall full of tables.

Ranma's eyes snapped back to the front as he heard one of the first years speaking. "So, it's time for the sorting, is it?" He said, confidently. "I've heard all about that, and I've been practicing for it for weeks!"

Ranma looked at the small, rather short blond haired boy who said this. "Um, isn't the sorting just…" He said, having been told about it by Lily during the break.

"Yes, yes, we have to wrestle a troll, but I'm confident that I'll beat it, can give it the ol' 1 2, and it'll just go down like that!" The boy said, excitedly. Ranma looked at him oddly. He was small, even for an eleven year old, and the way he was throwing punches, he'd break his hand if he hit anything solid. Still, a lot of the other first years were hanging on his every word, which, Ranma supposed, he couldn't blame them for. This event was rather stressful for him, and he was a lot older than they were… not that he was scared, that would just be stupid, but still…

"Would you sod off, Lockhart?" One of the students who hadn't been taken in by the blond boy's comments grumbled, irritated.

Lockhart just sniffed. "Well, if you don't want to know how to defeat the troll…" He trailed off, shrugging.

Just then, Professor McGonagall came back in, striding up to the group quickly. "All right, first years follow me please," She said, turning and walking back into the hall.

Ranma and the others followed her, and the pigtailed martial artist was impressed in spite of himself when he saw the place fully. The tables were incredibly long, with candles floating above them with no visible means of support. Along the walls hung banners with various symbols on them, a Lion, an Eagle, a Badger and a Snake.

The most amazing thing about the place, though, was the roof, which didn't really look much like a roof at all, as he could see the night sky straight through it, without even the obstruction that glass would cause. Still, he knew that the place had to have one, as all of the noise seemed to be contained.

He wasn't disturbed from his examination when the group was lead up to the front of the hall, in front of a long table where Dumbledore and several other older people sat, but he was when he realized that the entire hall full of students was looking at him, or the other firsts.

Ranma wasn't normally one to become nervous in front of a crowd, as the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics match attested, but this was still a little much. Gulping, he let his eyes flick around the tables, noticing Lily's distinctive hair at one. Focusing in on her, he saw that she was giving him a thumbs up.

Those four boys he'd talked to on the train were at the same table as Lily, giving him a curious look, and Severus was two tables over, ignoring everything and staring at his plate. Ranma was jolted out of his looking for familiar faces, however, when a voice came from just in front of him, and started singing a song.

He looked around frantically, until he saw a small, beaten up hat, with a rip at its base that was opening and closing in time to the music. Ranma blinked at it. "Is that the sorting hat?" He muttered, too low for anyone to hear.

He listened to the song it was singing for a moment, something to do with describing the traits of the four school houses. Lily had told him about the Houses, and that she was in Gryffindor and Severus was in Slytherin, but when he'd asked what they were like she'd said she didn't want to tell him, so he didn't get an unfair bias, whatever that meant.

Once the hat was finished with its song, McGonagall stepped forward with a scroll of paper. "When I call your name, you will step forward and prepare for the sorting." She said, her voice carrying through the hall. "Now, Arnold, Frank!"

Ranma waited as a small boy with glasses ran from the end of the line, grabbing the sorting hat and sitting on the chair where it had been sitting. Within a few seconds, it had shouted "Ravenclaw!" and he'd removed it, dashing down to one of the tables excitedly.

HR.

"Hey, James, that guy who asked where Evans was is up there with the firsties," Sirius black snickered, from where he was sitting, reclining casually in a chair that was really not meant to do that at the Gryffindor table.

"Huh, guess he was telling the truth when he said he'd just started," James said, shrugging. "Wonder what house he gets put into?"

Remus looked on from where he sat across from his friend. "Well, we'll just have to see, I suppose," He replied, easily.

James nodded, then looked down the table to where Lily was sitting. To his annoyance, he saw that she was watching the first years intently. "Hey, Evans, what're you interested in up there?" He asked, and Remus and Peter winced.

"Oh, that was subtle," The brown-grey haired boy snapped, under his breath.

"None of your business, Potter," Lily hissed back, noticing that their Prefect was giving them a disapproving glare. "Now be quiet before you get us all in trouble, and watch the sorting."

"Yep, James is jealous," Sirius said, before getting smacked on the arm by his friend. Unfortunately for him, he was already balanced rather precariously, and went over backwards with the extra nudge. "Owie…" He moaned, from the floor.

When the prefect walked by, glaring and hissing "Ten points from Gryffindor!" he felt a lot worse.

HR.

"Saotome, Ranma!" McGonagall called, and the pigtailed martial artist woke from a boredom induced daze, walking forward to put the sorting hat on. As he settled onto the stool, the hat fell a little bit over his eyes, obscuring the room from view.

He almost jumped a foot in the air when it whispered in his ear. "Hmm, this one's complex." It sat there humming for a few seconds, then spoke again. "You seek only control over magic, not understanding, and you mistrust it."

"Well, what do ya expect?" He snapped, very quietly. "Magic hasn't exactly been nice ta me."

"Hmm, true." The hat conceded, and then continued. "You have honor, but it has been used very harshly… and you will do anything within your ability to become better at your 'art.' You are brave, yet hold fears to which you would never even try to face up." Ranma's eyebrows twitched, but the hat continued. "Intelligent, but so heavily blinkered that you can't use it in any but a few ways. Hmm, rather fitting for a 'Wild Horse.'"

"Y'know, I didn't come here ta be insulted," Ranma growled.

"I merely speak the truth, boy," The hat returned, calmly. "Yes, I feel I know the house where you belong." Ranma was about to ask what the hat meant, when it spoke again, this time loudly enough that the whole hall could hear it. "Slytherin!"

Ranma took off the hat, and started towards the tables where he'd seen the other students who had been sorted into Slytherin had gone. Looking towards Lily at the Gryffindor table, he saw that she was smiling and clapping, but the rest of them were looking at him suspiciously, and the group of boys he'd asked for directions earlier was now outright glaring.

Shrugging this off, the young martial artist turned back, sliding into an empty seat next to Severus.

"Do you have to sit here?" The other snapped, irritably.

. "No one else I know here," Ranma explained.

Severus just grunted, and Ranma shrugged, turning towards the front of the room. He had been near the end of the first years to be sorted, and there were only a couple more, who both went to Hufflepuff. After they had been sorted, Dumbledore stood up, looking over the room for a moment.

"Hello, and on behalf of all the teachers here, I would like to welcome all first year students, and welcome back everyone who is returning," The old man said, loudly. "Now, I know I don't want to make a speech on an empty stomach, so…" He withdrew his wand from a pocket on the side of his robes, and waved it through the air. "Let us eat!"

Ranma blinked as, within seconds, a large quantity of food materialized on the tables. In front of him appeared an entire roast chicken, and as he looked down the table, he saw many other delicacies.

Within seconds, the Saotome youth had grown a huge smile, and his stomach started growling like an angry beast. As he started to tuck into the food as rapidly as he could, Severus winced and did his best to try and pretend he didn't even see, let alone know, the glutton next to him.

HR.

"All right, first years, down here!" a rather tall, thin fifth year girl barked, a gleaming badge affixed to her chest identifying her as a prefect. Ranma followed her with the rest of the first years, as they proceeded down a set of stairs that lead off from the main hall.

As Ranma looked around curiously, he noticed that the halls were getting dimmer. Within a few moments, the girl stopped at a random point in the middle of one. "The entrance to our common room is here, please remember where it is because there is no marker," She explained. "The password is Toujours pur, and if any of you tell it to a member of another house, I'll put you in the full body bind for a week, understand?"

Most of the first years nodded fearfully, but Ranma just shrugged, drawing the girl's attention. "I said, do you understand?" She snapped, harshly.

"Yeah, I get it, don't worry," Ranma replied, casually.

The girl puffed up with rage, but then sighed. "You're a first year, and probably not from a very high family, given I've never heard your name, so I'll let that go for now." Turning to a blank wall, she spoke again. "Toujours Pur!" instantly, the wall slid to the side in the same way as the bricks in Diagon Alley, and Ranma stepped into the room beyond.

In many ways, the place reminded him of some of the monasteries he'd been to train at while on his training trip. The ceiling was set low, and the stone floors didn't have any carpeting to soften them. Also, the lights around the edges of the room burned bright blue. Shrugging this off, Ranma walked around the room, investigating the several tall backed chairs that were set in front of the fire, and then walking to a set of stairs leading further down that had a wooden sign hanging next to them reading "Boys' Dormitories."

Heading down them, Ranma heard an odd sound from one that had the words "First Years" written on it in neat, sharp handwriting. Opening it, he saw that his dog had been scratching at the door, and making a rather pathetic whining noise. "Oh, I was wonderin' where my stuff went when I got ta the main hall," He said, sheepishly, as the dog gave him a reproachful look.

"Well, I'm sorry," He muttered, irritated. "It got a bit confusing, okay?"

Shrugging out of his robes to leave only the sweater and pants, Ranma found himself yawning. It'd been a long, boring ride from London to here, and then he'd eaten a LOT of filling food. Stretching, he walked the rest of the way into his new Dormitory, looking around to see six beds placed along the walls of the room, each of them larger than his and his father's Futons put together, and with curtains around their outside edges.

"Heh, well, at least they kept ya locked up in a nice place," he muttered, looking down at the dog. Seeing the bed that had his trunk and pack at its bottom, the pigtailed martial artist walked over to it, quickly changing out of his uniform into his usual T-shirt and boxers.

Seeing that the dog still looked annoyed at him for leaving it locked up in here, even if it wasn't his fault, he sighed. "C'mere," He muttered, climbing into the bed and patting a place near its base. Happily, the dog jumped up, curling up and falling fast to sleep. Not surprisingly, Ranma followed shortly after.

END.

I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, and won't kill me for certain decisions. *Cough* Sorting *Cough.* And now, I shall go away.

Please, R&R!


	12. Future Imperfect

Hello. I'm finally letting this damned thing die, permanently. I don't give a damn what comes up. It's dead. You know why? Because I finally found a much less objectionable way to get all of the plot points I WANT in a futurefic, and discard all of the ones I don't.

So this festering piece of... rot... can go sit in this hole for all eternity for all I care.

Enjoy reading it, but be warned, I didn't like writing this. I didn't even feel indifferent about writing this. I hated writing this, but I had to use certain plot bunnies, because they kept me awake at night, and this was how they forced their way out.

Having said that, if you can, Enjoy. If you want to flame, after that long beginning note, then you truely don't get why this thing is here.

It's a direct, full-archive grab from FFN, so whatever that does to the formatting, I'm sorry about, but I don't care enough to correct it.

Have a nice day, and I'm not angry at you, just this damned thing that's brought me almost nothing but flames and vague discust with myself.

Title: **Future Imperfect**  
Category: Anime/Manga » Ranma  
Author: weebee  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Drama/Tragedy  
Published: 06-20-09, Updated: 12-16-09  
Chapters: 3, Words: 27,974

* * *

**Chapter 1: Prologue: So It Begins**

* * *

Future Imperfect, By Weebee.

Summary: The Amazons attempt a desperate plan to gain Ranma for the tribe. It succeeds, but what far-reaching consequences will it have for Ranma and the tribe alike?

(Disclaimer 1: I do not own Ranma 1/2. There. I remembered one this time. Happy?

Disclaimer 2: This fic isn't very happy. Well, that's an understatement. Bad things happen to good people, and aren't very clearly punished. This seems to annoy people into a frothing rage, given what reviews I've got on the fic so far, so I just figured I'd warn you.

I don't particularely like the events of the first bit very much, myself, but you know what they say. "It's always darkest before the overcast, rain drizzled dawn."

And now, here's the fic. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Prologue: So it begins.

Cologne nodded to the young green haired girl who stood in front of her, and took the envelope from her hands. "Thank you child." She said, giving the girl a few hundred yen before she ran out of the restaurant. Shampoo and Mousse were out, Shampoo apparently trying to find her Airen and Mousse on a delivery, so she didn't have to worry about the two of them walking in as she read over the letter. It wasn't a particularly impressive looking letter, a brown envelope with a wax seal of a circle with a cross through it in the middle, but it made her distinctly nervous. The Amazon elders very rarely sent one of their curriers all the way to Japan with a letter, and when they did it was usually very important.

Slitting one edge of the envelope with a cracked fingernail, Cologne parted the seal, sure to nullify the Chi charge that would incinerate the contents if the wrong person tried to open it, and took out the missive inside.

"TO: Cu-lon, Third rank elder of the Joketsuzoku.

From: Leu-fa, first rank elder of the Joketsuzoku.

Subject: Ranma Saotome, acquisition for the tribe.

Message: It has come to the attention of the tribe that the defeat of Saffron of Phoenix Mountain was performed by Ranma Saotome, wayward husband of Xian-Pu. In light of this young male's extremely great potential, it is my duty to inform you that his capture and addition to the tribe is now a top level priority, in any capacity. Top level artifacts are now authorized in the pursuit of the objective, including total memory wipe and any other measure that is deemed appropriate. Failure in this objective is NOT an option.

Cologne, your seat on the council is resting on this operation. I am sure I do not have to tell you what will happen if you fail."

The Amazon elder lowered the letter to the restaurant counter, her hands shaking. There it was, the writing was on the wall. That threat about her seat on the council of elders was even more dangerous than it first appeared, as every family had one member who was elected as their elder, and Cologne's had no other qualified members. If she were kicked off of the council, then her family, including Shampoo, would likely end up becoming menial laborers at best. With a harsh curse, Cologne threw her wooden staff through a mirror that hung over the large stove in the back. She had to get to work, and she had to do so quickly. She just felt sorry for what would probably be needed in order to subdue Ranma in the time allotted.

HR

Shampoo opened the door to the Nekohanten, to see that the lights were off and the main floor was devoid of customers. The purple haired woman hadn't really been looking for it, but as she looked back she noticed that the sign on the front door was flipped to read 'closed.' This was rather odd, as the restaurant was normally open until around six thirty and it was only three now. "Great grandmother, you here?" She asked, beginning to become creeped out by the silence of the usually full room.

"I'm in the back, Shampoo." Cologne said, her voice drifting out from the storage room at the back of the restaurant. "I need your assistance to help me find some things, please."

Shampoo cheerfully chirped her ascent, and went to join her great grandmother in the storage room. To her astonishment, Mousse was already there, looking grim. "Great grandmother, Mousse, what going on?" She asked, confused.

HR

Ten minutes later, you could hear the sounds of Shampoo sobbing into something soft even from the main room of the restaurant, and Mousse whispering comforts into her ear. For now, he wasn't going to try and push it by declaring his love. Shampoo had just been told something that had turned even him slightly green at the first suggestion of it.

"Surely, there must be other way do this!" Shampoo said, as she pulled away from Mousse. "You destroy Ranma!"

Cologne scowled. "Do you think I don't know that child? Ranma was one of the most promising students I have ever taught, and this plan will remove all of that potential forever but we have no choice."

"Shampoo give up claim on Ranma, that way he no have to go back to…" Shampoo started, before being silenced by Cologne's staff, whapping her on the top of the head.

"This goes beyond you or me Shampoo. The high elders have decided that Saotome Ranma's blood must be added to the Joketsuzoku tribe, and that is final." The elder sighed tiredly. "Now go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a very… trying day."

"Yes… Elder." Shampoo said, almost spitting the final word as she turned around and stocked up to her own bedroom. Cologne seemed to wilt as if Shampoo had struck her with the final word, used instead of the traditional great grandmother. Surprisingly, Mousse was the one to lay a comforting hand on the elder's shoulder.

He had thought that an occurrence like this would make him incredibly happy. Ranma Saotome would be destroyed, humiliated, and he, Mousse, would be able to see his former rival in his new lowly position every day for the rest of his life. Best of all, he automatically got to marry Shampoo… but somehow, it just felt wrong to win this way. "Don't worry Elder, I'm sure she will understand someday." He said, before he walked out as well.

Cologne just chuckled softly as she saw the spectacled boy leave the room. She knew that he had been forced to mature incredibly quickly with whatever had happened to him in China, but he surprised her with the fact that he wasn't dancing in the streets, and he was trying to comfort her? Walking to the stove where her staff was still imbedded, she gave a good yank and pulled it out, destroying the cracked mirror in the process.

HR

Ranma Saotome whistled as he walked down the fence that lead to school. The failed wedding had been a week before, something that made him rather depressed, however he had also finally done it, on the roof, that night. He had finally SAID it. Of course, the walloping Akane had given him when he had explained that he had never said it at Jusendo was pretty bad, but he privately admitted that his foot, at least, deserved it for getting itself wedged that far into his mouth.

Ever since the night of the failed wedding, the two of them had been getting along much better, which had puzzled almost everyone they knew. Of course, Akane had gone ahead of him this morning for some sort of sporting meet, he still being tied up with his father at the time when she had left, but things were still going well. That was, until he heard the trademark sound of a set of chains tinkling as they flew through the air. As he jumped out of the way, he noticed that the chains seemed to be thrown with an almost apathetic motion, as if Mousse couldn't be bothered to aim properly. "Hey, what's up duck?" Ranma asked, paraphrasing a character that he had seen on a cartoon show that Nabiki liked to watch.

"Ranma," Mousse said, glaring. "I challenge you for the hand of Shampoo!" With that, he flung out his arms, but instead of the expected flurry of chains, a single small letter flew out. Ranma caught it, and inspected it carefully.

"Aw man, c'mon Mousse. You haven't been able ta beat me since ya showed up here, why do you think its gunna happen now?" Ranma asked, flipping the challenge letter over in his hand.

"It will change." Mousse said, with a strange note in his voice that Ranma couldn't identify. "It'll change more than you think. Come alone!" he yelled, as he jumped to a rooftop and leapt away.

Ranma blinked rapidly as Mousse disappeared into the distance. That was a rather strange encounter, and if he didn't know better he could have sworn that the blind boy had had his glasses on for the entire time. Shrugging it off, he opened the letter he had been given to see the usual stakes, if he lost he would give up Shampoo, and a street address. Ranma blinked as he realized that he didn't recognize the address, but shrugged it off as he pocketed the note and started running to school. He was probably late thanks to Mousse, and would end up holding buckets.

HR

Later on that day, Ranma sat in class and looked at the blackboard vacantly as the teacher droned on about the warring states Era. Normally, history was the only class that really caught his interest, but his mind was absorbed with thoughts of what Mousse was planning. The Amazon had told him to come alone, which meant something big was going on. Either Mousse thought that the fight was going to get bad enough to endanger bystanders, or he was going to try and do something underhanded. As he pondered which of the two it was, Akane tapped him on the shoulder.

"Ranma? It's lunch time, and I've made a bento for you!" She said, cheerfully. The pigtailed martial artist groaned.

"Aw, yer gunna try and poison me again?" he asked, wincing. "Please tell me it's curry."

Akane just glared as Ranma insulted her cooking… again. And to think, she'd been worried about him. He had looked as spaced out in history class as he usually did in math, and she had thought that there was something on his mind. Not to mention that he hadn't even noticed when the lunch bell had rung. With an annoyed huff, she slammed the lunch bento onto Ranma's desk and stomped off.

Ranma just shrugged as he opened the Bento, finding that fortunately it was her curried rice. A rather strange thing to make for lunch, but he just shrugged it off with the indifference of a Saotome who had been given edible food and dug in.

HR

Ranma lowered the piece of paper with the address of the challenge site on it to see a beaten up old warehouse, apparently part of a failed business nearby. It wasn't very common for a place in the middle of Tokyo to have wasted space like this, but Nerima seemed to have a lot of places that could be used as martial artist battlegrounds, perhaps purposely created that way to keep property damage to the rest of the district low, not that that ever worked.

Walking through the unlocked personnel entrance door, he blinked rapidly to adjust his eyes to the darkness of the interior of the building. Yeah, in a place like this, Mousse was definitely planning something underhanded.

Reaching out with his senses for Mousse's Chi, he surprisingly found it directly in the middle of the floor, on the other side of a stack of old crates from where he was. As he walked towards it, he began to feel nervous for some reason, and quickly turned around, only to jump back about three feet when he caught sight of the wrinkled face of Cologne. "Ah, it's the ol' ghoul!" he yelped, only to somehow get a bump on the head from the old woman without her having to move from her position on her staff.

Actually, the bump felt a lot harder than Cologne's usual admonishing taps, and he staggered to the side as his vision began to blur. "What… what's goin on here?" He asked, as he spun to see Shampoo, one of her Bonbori held in the finishing position of a swing. He noted with some pride that there was a pretty large dent in the ball like mace from where his head had impacted before he slumped to the ground, unconscious. The last thing he heard before his world went black was Shampoo's sobbed apologies to him.

"Can I go now?" Mousse asked, as he stepped around the wall of crates where he had been standing.

"Yes, for now." Cologne said, frowning down at the body that lay crumpled on the floor. "That blow was not enough to keep Ranma down for long, we must get him back to the Nekohanten."

"Yes, elder." Shampoo said, picking up Ranma's body and slinging the dead weight over her shoulder.

Cologne winced again at the coldness of her great granddaughter's answer, as well as the few tears that were running down her face. When she got back to the village, she would have words with Leu-Fa, first rank elder or not. It was high handed actions like this one that had caused the last war with the Musk, and she didn't want to know what would happen if her quickly cobbled together plan went wrong in some way.

HR

She woke to the sensation of a splitting headache, and the smell of some sort of herbal shampoo. Groaning, she cracked her eyes open to see the worried looking face of an extremely wrinkled old woman looking down at her. "Where… Where am I?" She asked, struggling up to a sitting position on the futon she was laying on despite the increased pain this produced in her skull and looking past the old woman to see a room, shelves lining its walls, apparently filled with food items.

"Oh, thank the goddess you are awake, daughter in law." The old woman said, sighing in relief.

"Daughter in law?" she asked, feeling annoyed for no particular reason that she could pin down. "Who are you?"

The old woman frowned. "I was afraid of this; tell me child, can you remember your name?"

The girl tried to remember her name, thinking that the request was kind of odd, until she realized that she couldn't. In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember ANY events that had occurred before she had woken up in this room. "I… I don't remember, I don't remember anything!" She said, panicked, as she looked to the old woman, who shook her head sadly.

"I was afraid of that." She said, before turning away from the girl. "To answer your question, your name is Rinsa, and you are the second wife to the male to whom my great granddaughter is married, not that he deserves her." She finished, under her breath. "I am elder Cologne, and his name is Mousse but I'm hoping that you may remember something when you see him."

Rinsa tried to take this in, as the Elder left the room, closing the door behind her. Her name felt… odd, in her mouth. It had the correct number of syllables, but she couldn't help but think that it started with something like "Ran…" she muttered, "Ran… something…" she shook her head as the headache suddenly got about five times worse, causing her to lose track of that train of thought. Of course, the thing that would be really hard to get used to was the fact that she was apparently married, and sharing the man with another girl. She hoped that she could at least remember something about the man, or things would be pretty awkward. 'Hi, the elder says we're married, who are you?' she thought, then couldn't resist the urge to grin at the absurdity of the thought.

The door opened a few seconds later, and the elder returned, leading a purple haired woman who Rinsa vaguely remembered, and… her heart caught in her throat as she saw the next person to enter. His long black hair fell over the back of his white robes in waves, and his eyes sparkled with something behind the glasses he wore. "M… mousse?" She asked, her mouth dry and her hands shaking.

The elder nodded slightly, and took the hand of the purple haired woman, leading her out of the room. "I'll just leave you two alone." She said, as she closed the door again.

HR

Out in the hallway, on the second floor of the Nekohanten, Cologne and Shampoo stood outside of the door to the supply room. "And now, we hope that Mr. Part time is a good actor." Cologne said, turning to Shampoo.

"Why we have to do this to Ranma, Elder?" Shampoo asked, the impassive mask that she had warn in the room now replaced by grief.

Cologne quickly lashed out and hit her great granddaughter on the head. "Do not use that name anymore, Great Granddaughter. Rinsa," she put special emphasis on the name, "Is extremely strong willed. If we give her too many links to her previous life she may be able to break the conditioning of the Xi Fa Xiang Gao, and you know it."

"Yes Elder, Shampoo know, but why she have be girl, and not even be warrior sister?" Shampoo asked, now getting slightly angry.

Cologne rubbed her temples. "You know why, Shampoo. Triggering her curse would cause the effects of the technique to wear off, and if she practiced martial arts it would be the anything goes school, which would bring up questions of where she learned such a style. Now stop asking such questions, I'm sure Mr. Part time has seriously botched things enough by now.

Surprisingly, when the two re-entered the storage room, they saw Rinsa cuddled into Mousse's arms and fast asleep. The spectacled boy carefully set the girl down on her bed, and backed away. "Is she going to stop clinging to me like that eventually?" He asked, looking extremely disturbed.

Cologne couldn't resist a quiet laugh. "I thought you would enjoy a cute girl like her hugging you like that, Son in law." She said, noticing Mousse perk up slightly with the name.

"Well, if it was Shampoo I would, but it just doesn't feel right with her. Now when will she stop acting like this?" he asked, looking down.

"She should stop acting so love struck by tomorrow morning, but she will always hold some affection for you, son in law." Cologne said, frowning. "How else do you think we will add her blood to the tribe?"

"Right…" Mousse said, that disturbed look coming back over his face before he left the room, joining Shampoo outside. Cologne joined them a few seconds later, after pulling the blankets up over Rinsa's sleeping form.

HR

"Where is he?" Akane muttered, as she walked through the streets of Nerima. She had checked the school, Ukyo's restaurant and Dr. Tofu's clinic, but couldn't find him anywhere. Now, after about four hours of searching, she was headed for the Nekohanten. She doubted that Ranma would be there, since after the screaming match he'd had with Shampoo and Ukyo after the wedding they'd been keeping their distance, but it was the last place she could think of looking other than just wandering through town, randomly checking empty lots for dueling martial artists.

Opening the door to the Café, she noticed that no one was down stares. She was about to go up to the second floor when she heard the tap of Cologne's staff coming down. "Oh, it's the Tendo girl," she said, as she entered the main room. "What can I do for you?"

Akane frowned. "Where are Shampoo and Mousse?" She asked, looking around.

"They are out on deliveries, now what can I do for you child, I am very busy." Cologne said, seeming to be rushed. She had to get Akane out of here before Ranma woke up. All she needed was for the youngest Tendo to see her here right before she disappeared.

"Well, Ranma's gone missing and I was wondering if you've seen him… or if you had something to do with it." Akane said, narrowing her eyes at the old woman.

"Son-in-law is missing?" Cologne asked, doing her best to sound surprised. When one has been around for more than a century, their acting gets pretty good.

Akane sighed. "So you haven't seen him?" She asked, before frowning. "Where did that Baka run off to?" Turning, she started to head out of the Café before Cologne stopped her by clearing her throat.

"I will send Shampoo out to find Son in Law as soon as she returns. This disappearance is troubling, especially since I felt a spike of his battle aura near the school just an hour ago." She said, looking grave.

Akane paled as she realized what that meant and ran out of the front doors, leaving them to swing closed with a soft click. Cologne smiled to herself. At least the Tendo girl would be out of her hair for a while. It was quite amazing how gullible most of the people around here were.

HR

A week later, Rinsa was sitting on her bed in the storage room, reading a Chinese grammar primer. This was not the activity that she most wanted to pursue at the moment, however since the elder had forbidden her from leaving her room until they returned to the village, something about aggravating her injuries, it was about all she could do. Apparently, when she had sustained the head injury that had taken away her memory, from a poorly placed box of Herbs that had been on the top shelf of a cupboard she had been working in, her grasp of her native language had gone with the rest of her past. As she struggled over Verb and Noun placement in a sentence, she heard the door to the room open and looked up to see Shampoo, carrying a tray with a glass of something and a bowl of Ramen on it.

"How's it coming." She asked, in Chinese, before putting the tray down.

"I understand you." Rinsa said, slowly, with a grin. "That good at least."

The purple haired girl grinned, and switched back to Japanese. "At least Rinsa know how use pronouns in Chinese. You do too too good." She said, with a grin. It was strange. Shampoo had kept her distance from Rinsa for the first few days, however she was now her most frequent visitor. Mousse seemed to be avoiding her, and Cologne was always busy working in the kitchen.

"So it's time for dinner is it?" Rinsa asked, as she cracked her chopsticks and picked up some of the noodles.

Shampoo nodded. "Elder say we go back to China tomorrow."

Rinsa raised an eyebrow. "I thought that elder Cologne was your great grandmother. Why do you keep calling her that?" She noticed that Shampoo had stiffened, and hastily backtracked. "It ain't any of my business or anything, I just thought it was strange."

"You really no remember anything, do you?" Shampoo asked, sadly. She had begun to stay close to Rinsa in the hope that some part of Ranma would show through, but aside from the slang speech she seemed like an entirely different person. It really seemed like her Airen was lost to her, and everyone else now, and the worst part was that what was left of Ranma didn't even realize that something was horribly wrong. Sobbing, she jumped to her feet where she'd formerly been sitting on the bed and ran out of the room.

"Hey, Shampoo!" Rinsa yelled, getting up and following. To her surprise, Shampoo was locked in her room, and Mousse was standing in front of the door, glaring at her. "What did you do to Shampoo, Ran…" He said, before cutting off. "Rinsa?"

"I… I don't know." Rinsa said, flinching away from the glare that Mousse was leveling at her. "She just said that I didn't remember anything and started cryin. Why're you glaring at me like that?" It hurt to see Mousse glare at her, as if he hated her, like that. It had only happened once before, the morning after she had first woken up. For some reason, her husband was glaring daggers at her and Shampoo had puffey eyes. The same thing was happening now, and she was beginning to think that Mousse definitely had a preferred wife. Of course, that didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it should, judging from how she had reacted when she first saw him, as if she were falling head over heals in love.

Mousse frowned. "It's all right, go back to your room. Elder Cologne will probably get angry at you if she sees you up." He said, before walking down the hall in the opposite direction. Rinsa just sighed. Why did making Shampoo run off like that make her feel so bad? Turning, she headed to her own room again, closing the door and slumping down to the bed to continue eating and reading.

HR.

Nabiki sighed to herself as she saw her younger sister trudge into the house yet again, sore, tired, and without any results. She considered saying something to the blue-black haired girl, but in her sister's currently volatile state, that may not be a good idea.

"Damn you, Saotome." The middle Tendo girl said, her fingers tapping more forcefully on the laptop she was typing at in the house's living room. It had been two weeks since Ranma had just fallen off of the face of the earth, and it seemed that he'd vanished for good, this time.

If it weren't for what his disappearance had done to Akane, she wouldn't have blamed him for finally giving up and running… but every time she looked into her sister's sad eyes, she vowed again that she would find the little bastard, if only to ring every last bit of monetary value out of him in revenge.

Hearing the sound of her E-mail notifier going off, the mercinary quickly checked it to see that it was yet another letter from one of her contacts, saying that they'd found no sign of the boy. Growling in frustration, she let her head fall to the tabletop with an audible thump.

"Still no luck, Nabiki?" Came her older sister's worried voice, as Kasumi put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"I don't understand how he could disappear so completely!" Nabiki growled. Even the Amazons had given up on finding him in Nerima and struck out across Japan about a week ago, and that was pretty dire. She'd actually suspected them of pulling some scheme and steeling him for a while, until she'd seen Shampoo. The look on her face when she'd talked about Ranma going missing was almost enough to make Nabiki feel sorry for her, and the middle Tendo knew that Shampoo was NOT a good actress.

A few moments later, the girl whipped her head up and glared out the doors that opened onto the house's backyard. "Saotome, where the hell are you?!" She cried in frustration, before returning her gaze to the computer screen.

Kasumi just looked worriedly at her two younger sisters, thinking the same thought, but also that they may be getting a little obsessed.

HR.

Somewhere deep in the Qinghai province of China, a small group of travelers walked along a path. The black haired man and the purple haired woman were in front, with the red-head and the much older woman trailing behind. All three of the younger people were looking around the area with wonder, though for different reasons on one of their parts. Shampoo and Mousse were just happy to be home, finally, after years in another country. Rinsa, on the other hand, was amazed at the scenery which she didn't remember ever having seen before.

Next to the red haired girl, Cologne smiled at the look on her face. It was at times like this, when the girl's emotions were fully on display that the old woman could see a bit of Ranma in the person she had forcibly changed the girl into. She knew that it wasn't enough for Shampoo, and truly regretted that, but perhaps her favorite student wasn't totally dead, even with the memory wipe.

As the group continued up the path and came into sight of a massive wooden gate, Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne all stopped to take a look at the home they hadn't seen in so long. Rinsa, on the other hand, just stood there looking confused. "Is… is this the village?" She asked, her face showing complete and total uncertainty.

Cologne was about to respond, but was surprised when Shampoo moved forward and clasped Rinsa's shoulder. "Yes, this is Joketsu Zoku village, our home." The young Amazon explained, smiling. "Welcome."

Cologne threw her great granddaughter a confused look, since Shampoo had been avoiding Rinsa for the entire time they had been traveling to China. Shampoo's response was a soft sniff and turning her face away from the elder, and Cologne's shoulders slumped.

"Come on, we should probably go in." Mousse said, uncomfortable about the actions that were going on around him and what they meant. The others nodded, and the four started in towards the village again. As they did so, he moved up alongside Shampoo again. "Shampoo…" He started, unsure of how to ask what he wanted to. Ever since the incident two weeks before she'd been a lot closer to him, but he didn't want to ruin it with an improper question.

"Why did I start talking to her?" The Amazon warrior asked, quietly.

"Well, I…" Mousse said, uncertainly, and Shampoo quieted him with a shake of the head.

"I've been thinking over the last little while." The girl explained. "It's not her fault. What happened to Ranma, I mean." She looked down. "It's mine." Mousse was about to exclaim something about that, but she stopped him. "If I… if I had been able to win Ranma from stupid Akane, this wouldn't have happened… but I didn't, because he never loved me, and the tribe did…" She shuttered. "I owe her a debt, because I killed someone very dear to her, even if she doesn't know it."

Mousse wasn't sure about what Shampoo had just said, though he was definitely thankful she'd said it in clear, understandable Chinese rather than her choppy Japanese. "I… understand." He said, slowly, realizing that he did. Throwing a glance back towards what had once been his worst rival, he shuddered. "I truly understand." Reaching one arm out, he gently rested it across Shampoo's shoulders. He wasn't being lovesick, or even particularly firm. He just wanted to offer his comfort. 'Who'd have thought the final loss of Saotome would make me feel like this?' he thought, as the group entered the Amazon village, their home.

HR.

Kasumi looked up from where she was cooking dinner for her family as she heard the front door to the Tendo house open. The sound of two sets of tromping boots answered her question about who was at the door, and she called out. "Hello Akane, Saotome-san!"

"Hi, Kasumi." Came her tired sister's voice as she slumped into the living room, her body covered with mud, dust and sweat. From the look on her face, Kasumi knew that the girl had gotten no results, yet again. "Are you cooking dinner?"

Kasumi smiled. "Yes, some nice pork and rice." She answered, happily, then frowned at her younger sister. "Now, how about you go upstairs and get cleaned up first?"

"Oh, sure." Akane said, absent-mindedly, before leaving the room and heading up the stairs. Kasumi looked after her sister, a mixture of worry and pride on her face. It had been a year since Ranma had disappeared, and Akane had demanded to go looking for him when Genma had first started searching. The old man had gruffly, and rather rudely in Kasumi's opinion, told Akane that she could only do it if she could keep up with him. Given that this was the sixth trip the girl had gone on, the winner of that challenge was evident.

"Hello, Kasumi." Genma Saotome said, slouching into the room also covered in dirt.

"Still no luck?" The younger girl asked, knowing that Genma wouldn't react as badly to the question as Akane would.

He fell tiredly into a seat, his head slumping forward onto the table. "Is it ever any different?" He asked, bitterly. Kasumi gasped, walking up behind the man and putting a hand on his shoulder. She'd often thought of Genma Saotome as a thief, liar, and generally reprehensible man… and come to think of it, a lot of that opinion still held true, but he never gave up on finding his son. This must be serious.

"What happened this time?" She asked, concerned.

"Nothing, really…" Genma sighed. "We stopped at Ryugensawa for a while, talked to that Shinosuke boy. He hasn't seen the boy either." He shook his head, sadly. "I think it's time we stopped." He admitted, his voice catching in his throat slightly.

Kasumi gasped, shocked to hear this from Genma, who had been resolutely searching for his son for an entire year. "But you…" She started.

"Kasumi, I'm one of the best thieves and trackers in Japan. Regardless of whether you like that sort of thing, it's true." Genma said this with no pride, just common fact. "I can't track him. Hell, the closest we came was this guy with a similar pigtail in Okayama somewhere, but he…" The old man winced, rubbing at a part of his back. "He definitely wasn't Ranma. I think we've got to accept that he's gone." He snorted. "Even Hibiki hasn't seen him in a year!"

Kasumi nodded. "I suppose you're right, Saotome-san." She admitted, and then glanced upstairs where Akane was washing up. "I just hope Akane will take it well."

"I'm not sure how she's going to take it." Genma said, following her gaze.

HR.

"This is all Mousse's fault." Shampoo moaned, laying on a bed in the middle of her home in Joketsu Zoku village. Rinsa giggled, a sound that Shampoo still hadn't quite gotten used to hearing from her after a year, and lay a damp cloth across the other woman's forehead.

"Oh? I thought you wanted strong little warrior children as soon as possible." She snickered, and then stood up from where she was kneeling next to her co-wife's bed.

"Yes, but can't he have them?" The purple haired Amazon complained, trying to heave herself up slightly, but her very pregnant belly getting in the way of said action.

Rinsa's eye twitched for a moment, and then she returned to her former smiling state. "I'm sure you'll change your tune after the baby is born, they always do." She said.

"Oh, and how do you know this?" Shampoo demanded, then groaned again as another contraction hit.

Rinsa shrugged. "I've been watching a few mothers around the village, in order to know what to expect from you." She said, and then scribbled something down on a pad next to the bed.

Shampoo blinked, surprised. Then again, she thought, she really shouldn't be. Rinsa was an odd person at the best of times, and it was something that she would do. She let herself smile as she thought about that. The other Amazon had started out in the village, almost a year ago, completely hopeless at most non-warrior tasks other than camp cooking and washing clothes.

Now, however, she seemed to have gained skills rapidly. When Shampoo asked Cologne about it, the elder had explained that Ranma's previous determination to acquire skills had to vent itself somewhere, and Rinsa had apparently decided that she would be the best at what she did, even if it wasn't fighting.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by another contraction, this time a lot more painful. She didn't scream, however. She was a Joketsu Zoku warrior, after all.

Beside her, Rinsa made another note and started walking for the door. "Where are you going?" Shampoo asked, slightly afraid that she'd be left alone but not willing to admit it.

Rinsa returned what Shampoo recognized as a toned-down version of Ranma's old cocky smile, before responding. "I'm going to get Mousse." She explained. "Usually, this is where the wife starts yelling at someone."

Shampoo laughed in spite of herself, as the red-head disappeared out of the room, and lay back, attempting to relax.

HR.

Outside of the room, Mousse was pacing back and forth violently, his fidgeting with his robes having already left a few small blades buried in the walls. As he paced, he tried to take his mind off of things by thinking of precisely how he'd gotten here. A lot of his childhood with Shampoo was a blur of blunt head trauma and broken glasses, and he tried to forget Nerima whenever he could. Even after all of this time, thinking that he was married to Ranma, even if Ranma, or Rinsa, usually acted more as a close friend than his wife, was REALLY disconcerting if he thought about Nerima.

Ever since Nerima, though, his life had mostly been getting better and better. He'd finally realized, after so many beatings, that all of his chasing of Shampoo had been what always pissed her off. Within a couple of months of their return to the village, the two had grown surprisingly close, especially since a lot of village life seemed somehow… old… to the both of them. It had been like a reverse form of culture shock that they had both suffered together, and it had made them grow much closer.

"Hey, Mousse." A voice called out, breaking the blind boy's train of thought. He looked up to see Rinsa standing in front of him, smiling at him. "I think you should go in and see Shampoo."

He nodded, noting that, as always, Rinsa called them by name rather than beloved, before following her into the room where his first wife lay. "Shampoo!" He gasped, seeing her face contort in pain, and dashed over to the bed.

Rinsa merely watched over her two co-spouses, and waited for Shampoo's new baby as anxiously as Mousse did.

HR.

Elder Cologne of the Joketsu Zoku watched from a distance as three proud parents fussed over a little baby held in the arms of her exhausted purple haired great granddaughter. The pride she felt at the moment, witnessing the next generation, was almost enough to make her start crying, but several things in the back of her mind kept her from doing so. Firstly, since it had been a child between Shampoo and Mousse, the council would likely STILL be on her back about producing an heir from Rinsa. She grimaced. The last time she checked, the Amazons weren't into breeding women like cattle, but she shook that off.

The most important thing that held her back, however, was that she wasn't sure how Shampoo would react to her. The girl hadn't been outright hostile over the past several months, which was an improvement, but Cologne didn't want to stir anything up on such an important day for the girl. Her decision was made for her, however, when Rinsa suddenly stiffened and looked in her direction. 'Damn, I still keep forgetting that girl has a martial artist's instincts.' She thought, cursing herself for a fool.

The redhead talked to Shampoo for a moment, and the girl's face went through several expressions too quickly for Cologne to read before she reluctantly nodded. "Elder, will you come over here to witness the naming of this child?" The purple haired girl called out, loudly.

Cologne considered hopping away, but that would be showing a huge amount of disrespect to members of her family, even though she could get away with it as an elder. Unsurely, she stepped forward into the light. Shampoo gave her an unreadable look, but Mousse and Rinsa wore small smiles as she approached.

Once the old woman reached the bedside, Shampoo raised the baby boy that had been resting on her chest, and began to speak. "My son, I name you So-Pu." She then smiled proudly, lowered the child back to her chest, and fell into a quiet doze.

"I recognize this name." Cologne said, proud herself, and rested a hand on the boy's cheak.

To her surprise, Shampoo's own hand reached up over hers. "Thank you, great grandmother." The girl said, softly.

HR.

Later that week, Cologne was having a much less enjoyable time as she sat in the tribe's main council chamber, in one of the lower teir seats that were reserved for the tribe's less important leaders. She was the war mistress, the equivalent of a military general, and she'd been called before the high council, who's leader was annoyed at her, as usual.

The old woman grimaced, now knowing that her adventure in Nerima trying to catch Ranma had lost her quite a bit of status in the council's eyes, and then took a deep breath before speaking. "You called me here to ask something of me?"

Elder Leu-Fa, one of Cologne's political enemies, and the leader of the high council, frowned at her. "Yes, Cologne." She said. "We wish to know why Mu-Tzu hasn't produced a child with the outsider girl yet." She said, bluntly.

Cologne sighed, and rubbed her temples as a massive headache promised to be on the horizon. "Rinsa is a member of the village, not an outsider." She started. "And I do not know why the two haven't concieved a child yet. You know that Mu-tzu is only in love with Shampoo, that may be it."

Leu-fa scowled. "We inducted the outsider into the tribe under the understanding that we could obtain her blood offspring for training, preferably female. We are losing patience."

Cologne blinked. It was odd that the elder was being so blunt in her demands, and she wondered why that was. Perhaps, she thought, they needed more strong warriors for the future? But that made little sense, as even if Rinsa became pregnant right now it would be at least twelve years before the child could fight. Keeping silent, she waited for the lead elder to continue.

"Cologne, your task was to bring the blood of the outsider who killed Saffron into the tribe. You have not done that yet. Do I have to remind you what the punishment for failure on this mission is?" The lead elder asked, seeming to take some sort of perverse pleasure in the words. "Given that your family has only produced a son so far, you are not exactly impressive."

Cologne growled, clenching her teeth for a moment before regaining control. Her clan had just been threatened and insulted in the same sentence, and she inwardly marveled that such a tactless woman had managed to gain the spot she held. Still, the threat was very real, and the other elders hadn't said anything to countermand it. "I will… take care of it." She finally said, the words trying to catch in her throat. Inwardly, she was screaming that the Amazon tribe was not the Musk, but it was getting harder and harder to believe. "May I leave now?"

The lead elder nodded, and Cologne turned around to leave.

HR.

"Rinsa?" The red haired woman didn't seem to hear her name called, as she concentrated on the garden in front of her. Moving one hand out quickly, she plucked something out of the dirt, then put it into a small bag by her side. "Rinsa?!" The voice came again, sounding slightly exasperated.

She looked up, clearing some sweat and hair out of her eyes, to see Mousse standing next to the garden with his arms crossed. He looked rather nervous, and she could see his hands rustling inside of his sleeves. "Hmm?: She asked, startled. "Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly." Mousse said, sounding very uncertain. "There's something I need to talk to you about." He ran through the instructions Cologne had given him, and cursed her for having to ask HIM to do this. Then again, he felt, if anyone had to do it, it was better him than some random man the elders picked out. Grimacing at that thought, he offered the girl a hand up.

"Sure." Rinsa said, whiping her hands off on her rough working pants, before accepting his hand and letting herself get pulled up. As she did so, he looked her up and down, trying to think of her as his wife, rather than the rival she'd been so long ago. "Are you sure you're all right?" She asked, concerned.

"Yes… Yes, I'm fine." He reassured her again, and then led her over to a bench that had been set in front of the house. "Rinsa, did the elders ever explain to you how you became a second wife?" He started.

Rinsa simply blinked. Truth to tell, she hadn't really thought about that. After the rocky start, she just acted like another family member, trying to keep out of Shampoo and Mousse's way when they obviously wanted private time, but otherwise, just there, doing what the others didn't have time to do. "I… never thought about it, to be honest." She answered.

Mousse muttered something that sounded like 'figures,' but Rinsa didn't call him on it, waiting for him to continue. "Your family was full of good martial artists." He said, barely hiding a grimace at the thought of Genma being called a 'great' martial artist. "The tribe wanted to ensure that the bloodline continued, even though you chose not to fight… which is the problem." He looked down. "Apparently, they're impatient to have an heir from you."

"So they want…" Rinsa started, then looked away, scratching the back of her neck in a very familiar mannerism. Mousse didn't respond verbally, merely nodding. As Rinsa thought about that, the first thing she felt was a sense of wrongness, that even THINKING about doing that with Mousse was out of the question, but then she blinked. Why would she think that? Mousse WAS her husband, and she still vividly remembered the feelings she'd had when she'd first seen him. She couldn't remember anything before that point, but she knew that she loved him. Still, why did something feel… wrong?

Raising her hands to her temples, she gave a soft shake of her head as a lance of pain flew from one side to the other. At a soft sigh from Mousse, she quickly spoke, not realizing it was a sigh of relief. "Oh, I wasn't rejecting you!" She said, quickly. "It's just... that headache's back for some reason. I'm sorry." Once her head stopped hurting, she turned towards him. "The village elders actually asked you to do this?"

He shrugged. "Actually, yes." He admitted.

She nodded. "All right, I'll…" She felt a twinge in her head again, but ignored it. "I'll do it." She smiled at him, weakly. "We are married, after all. That's what we're supposed to be doing, right?"

Mousse nodded, feeling slightly sick… but Rinsa had agreed. He had told Cologne flat out that if she refused he wouldn't do it, to hell with his and Shampoo's position in the tribe, but she'd agreed. 'Damn the elders,' He thought, but slowly stood, and took Rinsa's hand.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki was lost, again. This was not an unusual event. He'd been lost countless times throughout his lifetime, but this time he was really lost. He'd been walking up the 401 highway that he was pretty sure lead to Tokyo, when he'd suddenly blundered off into the woods by accident. Now, he saw a great deal of bamboo and other things that he recognized as Chinese. This was a bad thing, since he had to be in Tokyo in at most 3 hours, or he'd miss his own wedding.

He shuddered at that thought. All he needed right about now was two thousand pounds of Sumo Pig trying to kill him because he'd left Akari at the alter, and he'd probably kill himself with a Shi Shi Hokodan before the pig had the chance.

Within a few moments, the lost boy had broken out of the massive bamboo grove he'd found himself in, incidentally passing a group of what looked like female warriors on the way past in the other direction, and broken out into what looked like a crop field. Ahead, he saw a small wooden hut. "There are people there!" He exclaimed. "I can get directions, and then Akari and I can get married." Smiling at that thought, he let his mind wander, imagining the ceremoney. He just wished that Akane could be there, but she was off on yet another training trip with Mr. Saotome. Then again, he felt that she would have been slightly less nice than Ukyo if he'd have asked her to be his best man.

As he thought about this, the lost boy felt something slam into his chest. It wasn't very hard, just enough to jolt him back to reality. Looking around to see what he'd hit, he stopped at the sight of a mop of red hair. 'Could it be?' He thought, but dismissed the thought instantly. There were a lot of redheads around, and accusing every one of them of being Ranma would be both counter-productive and probably insane. Realizing that he'd knocked the woman over, he spoke. "Oh, I'm sorry, Miss."

"It's all right." The woman said, in Japanese that held a slight chinese accent. Ryoga nodded, and reached down to pick up some of the vegetables that he'd knocked flying out of the woman's hands when he bumped into her. Looking over at her, his eyes widened. She was a pretty girl, wearing a chinese pant suit with some special modifications. Her hair ran down to her lower back, tied in a loose ponytail. The thing that surprised him, though, was that she was visibly pregnant.

'Oh no, I just ran down a pregnant woman…' He thought, and quickly picked her up and set her down on her feet. "Miss I'm really sorry, I didn't hurt you right? My name's Ryoga Hibiki, and I wasn't paying attention. I really hope I didn't hurt you!" He babbled, quickly.

"I'm fine, Hi… Hichiki-san." She answered, waving off his concern, though a flash of pain crossed her face.

Ryoga stopped for a moment, wondering if she'd just insulted him by calling him 'lack of direction' on purpose, but shook it off. "Oh, well that's good. Can I help you with your vegetables, to make up for the accident?"

"Yes, that would be nice, thanks." Rinsa said, looking oddly at the babbling man in front of her. He seemed familiar, somehow, as if she'd seen him before. Still, she was sure that if she ever saw such a strange man, she would have remembered. Seeing the man start to walk, she cleared her throat. "My home is this way, Hichiki-san."

"Oh, right, hehehe." Ryoga said, laughing nervously. He followed the woman, as she led the way to her house.

After getting to the woman's house, Ryoga set down the load of vegetables he'd been carrying. "Hey, I don't mean to bother you, but do you know where Tokyo is from here?" He asked, nervously.

Rinsa's eyes narrowed for a second. "Tokyo, that's in Japan, isn't it?" She asked. "We're in the Chinese interior right now, Qinghai province."

Ryoga processed this for a moment, and then blinked rapidly. "Oh… we are? Akari's going to kill me!" He yelled, and then started running west as quickly as he could.

"But Japan is… east…" Rinsa said, blinking after the dust cloud that was vanishing into the distance. "Hmm, what an odd man." She mumbled, turning back to store the vegetables, and absently rubbing her belly.

HR.

Rinsa fell back on the bed, panting with rivulets of sweat running down her face. Still, she had felt the sensation that told her that she was done her job, and leaned back to have a well deserved break. Around the edges of the bed, Mousse, Shampoo and Cologne all stood, the purple haired girl holding something in her arms. Cologne leaned over her great granddaughter for a moment, and smiled as she did something to the bundle. "Hmm, yes, it's a girl!" The matriarch cried out, and Rinsa's mouth broke into a happy smile.

Within moments, she had been handed the little girl, having been cleaned off quickly, and was looking down upon it in wonder. For the past nine months she'd been going through hell, and her headaches had gotten worse just to make her misery complete, but looking into the face of her child she could honestly say that it was worth it. The girl was small, pink and wrinkly, but she had a very thin fuzz of dark red hair on her head already.

"So, what will you name the child?" Cologne asked, smiling herself. She wasn't quite as proud as she had been when witnessing the birth of So-pu, but it was close.

Rinsa thought for a moment. She hadn't actually considered her child's name, mostly because she'd either been too busy or too annoyed over the past few months. Still, now she had the girl in her arms, and a name was needed. She cast around in her mind for something, wanting it to be a good name, one for a strong person, like she had never been able to be. Then, she had it. She didn't know where it had come from, but the word conjured up images of a firm jaw and a steel sword, but also feelings of love. "Nodoka." She said, simply.

Shampoo and Mousse both went pale, and even Cologne's eyes widened a fraction. "What did you say, child?" The old woman asked, urgently.

"I want to call her Nodoka." Rinsa said, again. "I think it's a good name."

"It is." Cologne said, regaining her composure. "How did you think of it?"

Rinsa looked confused. "I... I don't know, it just sort of came to me." She said, sheepishly.

"Well then, Nodoka it is!" Cologne said, resolutely. As Rinsa cuddled with her new baby, Shampoo gave the elder a frantic hand signal, and she nodded back. "I must go and talk with Shampoo." She said, looking at the redhead. "You will be all right here."

Rinsa grunted distractedly, as Mousse moved closer to the bed to get a look at his daughter, though he did throw a questioning glance to his first wife and great-grandmother-in-law.

HR.

A few minutes later, in the other room, Shampoo paced around nervously. She wasn't sure if she was excited or horrified, but there was definitely some major emotion building. "Great Grandmother, what does this mean?" She asked, looking at Cologne. "Is Ranma… Rinsa… are her memories coming back?!"

Cologne sighed, lowering herself from her staff into a chair. She had been getting tired more and more often lately, and she needed to sit while thinking. "I don't know, Shampoo." She said, honestly. "There were some sections of her memory that I left mostly alone when erasing Ranma's persona… perhaps the name was in one of those sections?" At Shampoo's sudden downcast look, the old woman shook her head. "It's almost as if you want Ranma's original self to re-emerge."

"Well, I…" Shampoo said, uncertainly. "Rinsa has proven to be a good friend, and I don't want to lose her, it's just that Ranma," She shook her head. "I'm very confused, great grandmother."

Cologne nodded. "So am I." She answered, evenly. "However, I think I'll let this take its course." As Shampoo's eyes widened, she continued. "You and I both heartily disapproved of what we had to do to bring Ranma into the tribe. Now, we have a child for our people. If she regains her memories, or if she does not, is as fate wills."

Shampoo thought for a moment, and then nodded. "I agree." She finally said.

HR.

"Just a minute, Soap. I'm almost done." Rinsa said, batting the hands of the five year old boy away from the plate she was working with. Nodoka was playing nearby, trying to mimic a sword kata she'd seen Shampoo doing the day before, and the older redhead grinned at the little girl's efforts. Unfortunately, the two children couldn't take her mind off of what was going on around her for very long.

As she mixed the ingredients for the night's dinner, she looked through the kitchen window, worriedly. Hostilities had started escalating between the Amazons and the Musk tribe over the past few months, and Shampoo and Mousse were both out there, patrolling the tribe's borderlands for attackers.

She wasn't sure how the fighting had started, but it had escalated to the point where each side would periodically raid the other shortly after one of the tribe's hunting parties was taken out by Prince Herb's troops over six months ago. At the moment, she wished that she could help, especially since her spouses were supposed to be back from patrol twenty minutes ago.

"Soap, no!" She said, snagging a small bit of bread that he'd tried to slip up his sleeve. "Go bug your sister or something." She muttered.

He only nodded, running off to do just that, and Rinsa went back to what she was doing. Unfortunately, only minutes later, the front door to the house banged open loudly and someone stumbled in. Quickly looking around, Rinsa saw Mousse, his face pale and robes deshevelled. Dropping the plate she was holding, she ran over to him. "Mousse, are you all right?"

The master of hidden weapons frowned, noticing the two children nearby, and gestured Rinsa outside. She followed him, puzzled, and he quickly closed the door. "What's going on here?" She asked. "Where's Shampoo?"

The robed man winced, his eyes sparkling visibly from tears. "They got her." He croaked, simply. Rinsa paled visibly, and he continued. "We were retreating, when one of their energy users got her in the back with an energy blade."

"So she's…" Rinsa said, a horrified expression appearing on her face.

Mousse nodded slowly, and then opened the door to the house. "Wait, where are you going?" The red haired woman demanded, following him inside.

He didn't answer, merely opening the cupboard near the front entrance, removing handfuls of weapons and slipping them down his sleeves. Normally, he carried a lot of weapons, but now it looked like he was loading up for a war with the PRC. Then, she realized what he was thinking. "Mousse, you can't!"

Nodoka and Soap looked over from the other side of the room, but didn't move, as they saw that their father was seriously preparing for combat.

Mousse shook his head. "I'm sorry, Rinsa… but I have to do this."

She sighed. She knew he was right. Though she and Mousse were always pretty close, she knew that his first wife was the one he truly, unconditionally loved, and didn't begrudge him that. "You're going to come back." She said, flatly.

Mousse did not respond. He did not reassure her, or deny it. He simply walked to the door and opened it. The last thing he said before he left, though, chilled her to the bone. "Take care of Soap for me. Make him and Nodoka fighters I'd be proud of."

Rinsa only nodded slightly as the door swung slowly shut.

HR.

"It wasn't funny." Nodoka grumped, walking next to her older brother as the two of them walked through the village's front gates.

"Yes, it was." He said, chuckling softly. "I mean, you were so happy about getting that balance exercize down, and then you face-planted into the mud. It was great!"

The auburn haired girl just grumbled, reaching for her wooden training blade so that she could whap her brother over the head with it. He really didn't get the whole thing about female Amazon warriors having to get respect from the males, but then again, her mother had pretty well told her that that was nonsense a long time ago, so she let it slide.

"Mom's going to kill me for breaking the bridge of my glasses again, though." She mumbled, fingering said eyewear, which was just barely hanging onto her face. She would have taken them off, but she was completely blind without them.

"Glad I don't need those." The black haired boy said, running ahead of her, as he saw that their house was coming into view. She merely sighed. She seriously had to wonder about Soap's maturity, even if he was fifteen, and a whole year older than she was.

"Hey, wait up!" She called, running after him.

HR.

Rinsa looked up from where she was working in her family's house's front yard, as she heard the sound of two children running towards her and talking to each other. Recognizing the voices, she stood up and shaded her eyes to see if she could see them. Sure enough, Nodoka and Soap were tearing along the road up to the house at top speed.

Soap was a black haired boy, wearing black Chinese pants and a white shirt with extra large sleeves. His hair was cut short, and he had an odd diamond shaped pattern on the front of his shirt.

Nodoka was slightly shorter and younger than he was, with free flowing auburn hair and a figure that was similar to her mothers. She wore a traditional Chinese Amazon warrior costume in red and black, with an armored breastplate. Rinsa frowned as she saw that the girl had one hand resting on her glasses. "Not again…" The older amazon muttered, but then just sighed and waved to the two incoming human projectiles.

Ever since Shampoo and Mousse had died, ten years earlier, the three person family had lived together. While both of the children knew a lot about their other parents, Rinsa had been sure to tell them the stories she knew about them, they both pretty well regarded her as their mother, and thanks to a request that both Mousse and Shampoo had put in their wills, and some maneuvering by Cologne, that's what she was legally. "So, do I want to know how you did it this time?" She asked, as the two children came into easy speaking range.

Nodoka looked at her mother sheepishly, removing her hand from her nose to scratch at the back of her neck for a moment. "It was another training accident." She muttered.

"Yeah, you should have seen it! She took a header right off of the challenge log!" Soap laughed, receiving a sharp nudge to the side of his ribs by his sister.

"I've got some tape in the house, come on." Rinsa said, trying not to snicker at the mental image Soap had caused to pop into her brain. Nodoka grumpily nodded, but Soap shook his head.

"I've got to go. The lead huntress wants me to go on a hunting party today." He explained. "Just wanted to make sure she didn't run into any trees."

Nodoka threw her brother a withering glance, but he quickly started running off. "Oh, don't mind him, he's just being a jerk." Rinsa said. "Believe it or not, it's a family trait."

Nodoka giggled, and followed her mother into the house. As Rinsa was rummaging through the cupboard for the tape, she asked a question. "Was dad like that?"

Rinsa chuckled. "All of us were, sometimes. I know I used to say a lot of stupid stuff."

"Like what?" Nodoka asked, curiously. Her mother gestured for her to hand over her glasses, and she did so, turning the room into a blurry mass of brown and grey.

"Hmm, now that you mention it, I can't remember." Rinsa said, reaching up with one hand to rub at her forehead before bringing it down to start working on the glasses' frame. "I do know I did it a lot when I was younger, and the elders don't like me much."

Nodoka nodded in understanding, waiting for her mother to give her glasses back. She knew that the older woman had some problems with her memory, so didn't really find the previous exchange odd. As Rinsa handed her glasses back to her, she put them on and then frowned. "I bet I probably missed the rest of training." She grumbled.

The older Redhead looked over to a clock on the wall, and then nodded. "Yes, you probably have." Seeing her daughter's downcast expression, she thought for a moment and then smiled. "I think we've got some punching pads in storage somewhere, so if you want you can practice your hand to hand on a moving target."

Nodoka blinked, then looked at her mother strangely. "You're offering to help me train?" She asked, not quite believing it. As she said the statement, she realized that she probably sounded really insulting. "I mean, um, erm…"

Rinsa just laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. I know I'm not a martial artist, but I'm sure I can hold up some pads for you to hit."

"Yes, that'd be great, thanks mom!" Nodoka exclaimed, feeling that she at least had to make up for her previous foot in mouth problem.

Rinsa smiled, and went to look for the training gear.

HR.

About ten minutes later, Nodoka was starting to get a little bit freaked out. After her mother had found the punching pads, she'd taken a half-way passable defensive stance, and Nodoka had started attacking slowly. The older woman immediately blocked what she threw, so Nodoka increased speed. Right now, she was at about half her usual sparring intensity, and her mother was keeping up. She'd been about to ask the older woman if she'd always been lying about not being a martial artist, when she noticed that her eyes had unfocussed.

"Mom, are you all right?" She asked, stopping her assault for a second. Rinsa didn't answer, however she did bring her foot up in a sweep kick that Nodoka just barely jumped over. "Mom?" She asked, falling back into a defensive pose. 'Maybe I did make her mad…' She thought. Rinsa didn't answer, moving in on the much younger Amazon with a quick series of punches.

Nodoka only got out of the way of the blows because the punching pads strapped to Rinsa's arms made her blows sloppy and inaccurate. "Mom, what are you doing?" She asked, the attacks getting harder to dodge by the second. In desperation, the girl started to fight back, if only to lessen the rain of attacks. At the moment, the two were at the same level she and her fellow warriors in training routinely sparred at, but she could detect an incremental increase in her mother's speed.

"This can't be happening.." She thought. "This is impossible!" Unfortunately, she didn't have much more time to think, as her mother said something she couldn't understand, and delivered a strong blow that knocked her back several feet and to the ground.

She flinched, expecting the beating to continue, an only looked up when she heard the redhead's confused voice. "Nodoka? Why are you on the ground like that?"

"Why am I…" Nodoka asked, looking up to see that her mother was standing in a rather slack stance, blinking at her in confusion. "I'm here because you just beat me in a spar!" She exclaimed.

"That's very funny." Rinsa said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "But I think I can't help you today. For some reason, I'm really tired. Sorry, No-chan."

"But you… I…." Nodoka stammered, looking between her mother and the ground. Growling in frustration, she shook her head. "It's no problem, Mom." She finally said, giving up on figuring out what had just happened.

HR.

In the darkness, it paced. It was a massive black and red striped tiger, and it had been doing this for a very long time, but recently it had become much more agitated. It had seen a beam of light! Just for a few moments, the light penetrated and let it see outside. It had given up hope of ever seeing the outside again, but there it had been, for just a shining second. Grass, and trees, and water, and sky… it wanted OUT!

Roaring, the cat careened around the darkness of its prison, as it had done when the prison had first been constructed, it wasn't sure how long ago. It knew that there were other things in the prison with it. A lot of its human side's memories had been shoved in here, for some reason, and so had the water. The water was an odd thing, in the cat's experience. It pulsed mightily against the walls every once in a while, apparently on some unseen signal that the cat couldn't understand. The red and black monstrosity lumbered over to where the water normally pounded, running its nose along the wall. Yes… it could feel it, a tiny crack that the water had produced after so many years of pounding. Growling animalistically in the darkness, the cat began to pound at the crack with its claws. It WOULD be free!

HR.

"Oh, Ranma, you're such a cute little boy." "Son, come on! We're going to go on a long trip…" "Just one more time, boy. I'm sure you can learn it!" "Saotome Ranma, of the Saotome school of..." "...I'm Ukyo. Nice to meet you!" "Very tragic story…" "Jusenkyo…" "Hi, I'm Akane, do you want to be friends?" "Ranma, you jackass!" "Oh, my!" "Airen…" "Ohohohohohohohohoh!" "Sweeto!" "Oh, my manly son!" "It'll cost you, Saotome." "Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" "Foolish Landling!" "I, the blue thunder…" "Prince of the…." "Tea Ceremoney…"

Rinsa's eyes shot open, and she stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom. Her arms were shaking, and there was sweat trickling down her back. "What… what was that?" She gasped, though the images and voices from her dream were rapidly fading away, only allowing her to keep a grasp on very few. As she thought of them, her head began to ache again. She groaned, getting out of bed and fumbling around in the drawer at the side for the small amount of medical supplies she kept there just in case.

Finding a bottle of headache medication that she tried not to use unless she had to, she opened it and popped one tablet into her mouth. She swallowed it dry, and stood. Looking out the window, she saw that the sun was just starting to rise. "Oh well, I would have had to get up soon, anyways." She mumbled, and left the room to get a bath.

As she sank into the warm water, the redhead felt an odd tingling sensation, but ignored it. It was probably just something about going from the cold air into the warm water. Fortunately, the combination of the water and the medicine was having an effect, and her headache was subsiding. "I've really got to see the healers soon." She mumbled, worriedly. She'd gotten headaches ever since she could remember, apparently a lasting symptom of the accident that took her memory sixteen years ago, but they had been building up to full migraines lately, and those dreams… Shaking her head, she tried to dismiss those thoughts, and started to wash up.

HR.

"You've got to be kidding." Soap said, as he reclined on a tree trunk, eating some cooked rabbit.

"Look, I'm telling you that Mom sparred with me yesterday, and she beat me!" Nodoka said, exasperated at her brother's distinct disinterest.

"We both know Rinsa isn't a martial artist, she can't even throw a punch." Soap said. "Maybe you spent too long face-down in the mud and hallucinated it?"

Nodoka sniffed at him. "Fine, don't believe me, but there's something weird going on here." She said, annoyed.

Soap sighed, seeing that his sister was serious about this. "I don't know, maybe she just got lucky? How did she tag you?"

"That's the weird part." Nodoka explained. "I mean, she started off as bad as I thought she should be, but then her eyes sort of glazed and she started to counter everything I threw." Soap gave a non-commital grunt, so Nodoka continued. "Then, she said something I didn't understand, and laid me out."

"What did she say?" He asked, pushing off of the tree and actually starting to seem interested. When Nodoka repeated the string of syllables she'd heard, his eyes narrowed and he started to think. "Your Japanese pronunciation is horrible, you know that?"

"It's Japanese?" She asked, surprised.

"Yeah... means something like 'a hole,' or 'an opening,' or something. Maybe she was pointing out a hole in your defenses?"

"In Japanese?" She asked, blinking at him.

He shrugged. "She can speak it." He smirked. "I've heard her cursing in it."

Nodoka sighed. "Well, that answers that one, but I guess we won't be able to figure out what's going on until later. My training group's got a patrol today."

"Mind if I come along?" Soap asked, curiously. At her upraised eyebrow, he shrugged. "I'm bored."

Nodoka face faulted, as her brother laughed.

HR.

The village healer, a woman by the name of Was-Ing, hummed to herself as she sorted through various herbs that she had picked on a recent expedition to the lands around the village. Today was pretty slow fortunately, and she hadn't had to deal with anything more severe than a blacksmith with a cut on his hand, so she'd decided to take the time to sort things out.

As she thought this, however, the front door to her small building creaked open, and she sighed at the return of work. Looking up, she saw a familiar red haired woman in the doorway, holding a plate full of food. "Oh, hello Rinsa." The old woman said, smiling. Most of the village bartered goods for her services, and whenever it was Rinsa she usually made something that the healer would quite enjoy eating. "How are you this afternoon?"

The younger woman frowned as she placed the plate on the table, revealing it to be a freshly cooked chicken from the small group that she raised. The healer's eyebrows rose. A fee that large meant something serious was probably wrong. "It's those headaches I've been getting." Rinsa said. "They've been getting worse, and I've been having strange dreams."

The healer frowned. She really hadn't wanted to hear that. Given what had happened to the other woman sixteen years ago, symptoms like this made her want to get her into a city for an X-ray or CT scan. Unfortunately, the elders didn't like that idea. "I see." She said, and stood from her seat. "Sit here, please."

Rinsa nodded, walking around the table and sitting down. Immediately after, the older woman began to run her hands through the younger's long red hair, feeling the top of her head. "So, what were these dreams about?" She asked, while conducting the exam.

Rinsa wanted to shake her head, but couldn't, so just settled for speaking. "I can't really remember. They're all jumbles of different images and voices, and I can't remember most of them when I wake up."

"Hmm…" The healer said, nodding. "You can't remember most of it, what can you remember?"

"Little bits and pieces." Rinsa said, shrugging. "Something about… Jusenkyo… a few names, not much else. Every time I try to remember more, the headaches get worse."

The healer nodded again, but unseen to Rinsa her face had gained a very worried expression. Most amazons didn't even know about Jusenkyo. Since Rinsa had lived with Shampoo and Mousse, she likely did, but why she was dreaming about the place, Washing had no idea. "Do you have a Jusenkyo curse?" She asked, stabbing in the dark, though she was pretty sure of the answer since she'd been doing physicals on the other woman for years.

To her surprise, Rinsa flinched violently at that question. "I… Jusenkyo… what's a Jusenkyo curse?" She asked, blinking in confusion.

"I see." The healer said, now definitely worried. "Just a moment, I'll be right back."

Rinsa merely sat in the chair, waiting as she heard the healer bustling around in the back of the room. She was tempted to start fidgeting again, but resisted the urge as she sat. This turned out to be a bad idea, apparently, as the healer returned a few minutes later, and promptly dumped a glass of cold water over the smaller woman's head.

"Hey, what did ya do that for?!" Rinsa demanded, not noticing that she had reverted to Japanese for the indignant question, and spinning on her heal. Seeing the healer nod slightly, she opened her mouth again… right before getting hit in the face with a glass of hot water. Instantly, her body began to tingle. "Wh… what's happening?" She asked, before everything went black.

HR.

In its black prison, the cat feverishly dug at the crack that the water had made in the wall. It could feel the material, formerly so strong and impenetrable, giving under its claws now, and it increased its digging to a fever pitch. It would be free soon, it knew it! Rearing back, the cat pounded at the weakened wall section with its paws, feeling the whole thing shudder. The crack grew a little bigger, and the cat could actually see some light coming through from the other side.

Just as it let out a triumphant howl, the cat noticed that there was light coming from its side, as well. It looked back to see the strange 'water' that it could never understand, as it let loose another blow at the wall. Instantly, the whole thing crumbled, and the cat was out in the open air, in his own body.

In front of him was a female that his human side's memories labeled as a friend, but his human side's memories were very confused and muddled at the moment. Cocking his head to the side, he looked her over and meowed at her inquisitively.

The female backed away from him, nervously, and ended up catching her legs on the edge of a chair. Letting herself fall back into it, she stared at him fixedly. Normally, the cat would stop to meow at her for a while and see if she would pet him or give him food, but normally he hadn't been locked away for over fifteen years. Yowling, he turned around, and charged for the door.

HR.

Washing sighed as the male that had been Rinsa turned away from her, heading for the door. No, that thing wasn't a male. She wasn't sure what it was, but the way it yowled and moved was positively inhuman. "Next time I want to test out a theory, have some armed guards on hand." She muttered to herself, letting her head fall back against the top of the chair and staring up into the ceiling. "Also, I'm getting too old for this."

HR.

At the edge of the Joketsu Zoku village, two guards stood and studied the road in front of them in a state of almost complete boredom. "You know, nothing's going to happen." One of them, a young man with a set of maces strapped to his back, commented lazily.

His partner, an older and more battle-scarred warrior, snorted. "That's no reason to let our guard down, boy." She said, her eyes studying the road intently.

"Yeah, right." The younger man muttered, looking around for something more interesting to look at. He knew that the Musk were still a substantial threat, at least whenever they decided to try another raid of Amazon territory, but they hadn't tried that in over six months, and there really wasn't anything else to worry about. As he looked back over the village itself, his eyes widened.

On one of the roofs near the edge of town, he saw what looked like a man wearing the remnants of a worker's pant suit, standing on all fours and looking around. "Holy… look at that!" He exclaimed, causing his partner to look over at him.

"Don't get distracted." She rebuked, annoyed.

"No, seriously, look over there!" The boy exclaimed, pointing.

Deciding to humor the new guy, she glanced over to where he was pointing and her eyes popped wide. "What in the world is that?" She exclaimed.

Her question was quickly answered, as the man on the roof had apparently noticed the two of them. He bounced off of it, and came running up to them. As he did so, they could see him more clearly. He was, indeed, wearing the remains of what looked like a female farmer's clothes, and how he'd managed to get them on before ripping them up was beyond the experienced warrior. They looked about 4 sizes too small for him.

Wearily, she drew her sword from over one shoulder, and her partner followed with his maces. The strange man grinned eagerly, and then jumped at the two of them with an unearthly yowl.

HR.

The cat was having fun. He wasn't sure where he was, since his human memories kept giving contradictory accounts, but all he knew was that it was open, there were lots of places to jump around, and there were a bunch of neat people to play with.

It had started with two of them, a male and a female who were pretty fast, but before long there was a whole group chasing him around the village like a demented game of follow the leader. As his first day out of the darkness, the cat thought this was pretty fun. Still, there was something nagging at him from the human part of his mind, the one that usually told him who to like, who to attack, and other things like that.

While it was still very confused, it was starting to get angry as well. It was as angry about him getting locked up as he was, apparently, but it didn't know who had done it, so with his usual carefree attitude, the cat put that aside for later consideration. For the moment, he had people to play with, and a whole village to run around in.

HR.

Elder Cologne! Elder Cologne, someone's attacking the village!" the elder who had just been called woke from her half-doze at her desk, and looked sharply at the messenger who had just run into her meeting room.

"The village is under attack?" She asked, "By who?"

The messenger shrugged, though he looked panicked. "We don't know, elder. There's only one of them, but so far he's managed to out-run the whole village's guard squad."

"One male?" The elder asked, shocked. "Is Herb of the Musk here?"

The man shook his head. "No, he doesn't look like anyone we've been trained to recognize."

The elder nodded. "All right, that's fine." She said, and then pulled her staff from behind her chair. Perching on its end, she began to move towards the room's main door, the messenger following her. As she reached the door, she saw a blur of black, pink and blue flash past her.

Blinking, she reviewed the last few things she'd seen, and frowned. "So, that's what fate decided." She muttered, low enough for the messenger not to hear.

She quickly came to the realization that, if this was Ranma, he wasn't acting normally. Given what had been done to him, she'd expected him to be angry, tearing up the village in revenge or something. As she thought, she looked down at the ground, and noticed a set of marks that had been dug into it when Ranma had run past. "That is… the Neko-ken?" She mumbled.

"Call the other elders, and find Rinsa or her two children!" She ordered, before pushing off of the ground, chasing the blur. She had to make sure that Ranma didn't injure anyone in the village while in his cat state.

HR.

Over the next half an hour, Cologne gave chase to the cat until he finally seemed to notice that she was following him. Coming to a stop in the main contest square, he watched her warily as she landed on a log in front of him. The cat recognized this one. He'd had quite a lot of fun with her on a beach a long time ago, though his human side didn't like her much.

Snorting at her, he waited to see what she would do. She slowly approached him, making calming noises, and he frowned slightly. She was trying to calm him down, to get him to stop running around and let his human self take control. He was planning on doing that eventually, but this was the first time he'd been out in so long, he wanted just a little more time. Meowing sadly, he shook his head at her.

Cologne blinked. It seemed that the cat wasn't nearly as angry or annoyed as she thought it should be, and she wondered why. She tried to call it to her again, but the cat just shook it's head, and she grumbled. "This is like trying to get a pet cat to do something." She muttered.

Just then, a large amount of water was thrown at the cat from the side of the square opposite Cologne, and it leapt over the wave, hissing angrily. Cologne slapped her forehead, seeing that Elder Leu-Fa was standing there with six warriors. "I had him contained." She grumbled, but thankfully not loud enough for the higher ranked woman to hear.

"Cologne, how did this happen?" Leu-fa snapped, glaring past Ranma at her fellow village elder.

Cologne shrugged. "Ranma did have a very strong will, I was surprised that the technique lasted that long without showing signs of strain or needing re-application."

"And you didn't think to tell me this because…" Leu-Fa growled. At the moment, Cologne reflected, if expressions could kill, then Leu-Fa's would murder her on the spot.

"You never asked." She said, having had enough of the other woman's high handed attitude, and now relatively sure that she was going to be exiled no matter what she said.

Leu-Fa's eyebrow twitched violently.

HR.

Nodoka and Soap ran through the bush at top speed, on their way back to the village. A messenger had just reached their patrol, reporting that something bad had happened, and it involved them somehow. Given what Nodoka had mentioned about her mother earlier, they were both very worried, and pretty thankful that they had only been about a mile from the village at the time.

"So, what do you think happened?" Soap asked, dodging under a branch as the two broke onto the main path that lead to the village gates.

"I don't know." Nodoka replied. "I hope it doesn't have anything to do with mom." Both her father and Shampoo had already been killed in battle, and if it happened to Rinsa as well… She shook her head to clear her thoughts, seeing similar thoughts crossing her brother's face.

Jogging through the main gates and towards the village square, the two young warriors noticed a large crowd gathered there.

"What's going on here?" Nodoka asked, tapping on the shoulder of one of the warriors surrounding the square. The older woman just shrugged, pointing, and Rinsa's two children followed the finger to see something rather odd. In the middle of the square stood an unfamiliar looking man, as well as two of the village elders.

"Hey, isn't that what mom was wearing this morning?" Nodoka asked, pointing at the shreds of clothing that covered the man.

"Yeah, I think you're right…" Soap said, confused, and the two edged deeper into the square. As they did so, they saw one of the elders, who they identified as Leu-Fa, move towards the man and try to reach out and touch him. He immediately jumped away and over her head, lashing out with his hand as she tried to hit him with her staff. To the two young warriors' shock, the end of the staff fell into several pieces and clattered to the ground.

"What's going on here?" Nodoka said, apparently too loudly as both the elder and the strangely moving man looked towards her. They both had distinctly different reactions. The elder suddenly started to smile, as the man moved, bounding towards her.

Soap instinctively got between the threat and his younger sister, getting bowled over by the man, who sat on his chest and started purring. "Okay, this is getting just plain weird." He muttered, looking up into blue eyes that sparkled slightly. After a few seconds of silence, he tried something else. "I don't suppose you can get the heck off of me?!"

The stranger didn't seem to hear him, bending his head slightly and nuzzling Soap's face. "Hey, do you mind?" The younger boy asked, now half way between embarrassed and freaked out.

"Yes, I've lost most of my patience." Came the annoyed voice of elder Leu-Fa, causing Soap to crane his neck to see where she was. When he did so, however, his face went pale.

Immediately, the strange man jumped off of Soap, taking up an angry, four legged, stance and opening his mouth to yowl loudly. In front of him, the thing that was causing this reaction smiled. "Yes, that's right, pay attention to me." Elder Leu-Fa said, as she stood next to Nodoka, who was stiff as a board, with the end of the elder's staff held against her neck. "Now, I've gotten tired of your games. Unless you want to see her die, you will let us revert you to normal." The elder said, smugly.

Across the square, Cologne groaned and slapped her forehead. That had, quite possibly, been the dumbest thing to do around Ranma, especially in Neko-ken mode.

Almost instantly, Cologne was proven right by the sound of the cat's angry hiss, and the sight of battle aura crackling at his fingertips.

For their parts, Nodoka and Soap were both confused. Well, Nodoka was terrified and confused, while Soap was angry and confused, but the basic emotion was the same. "Why would he stop because you're threatening me?" The auburn haired girl asked, feeling the staff press against her throat every time she said a word.

"Be quiet." Leu-Fa snarled, annoyed, while Cologne's mind was going a mile per minute. There was one thing the smarter of the two elders knew, and that was if Leu-Fa hurt Nodoka, despite his so far easy going attitude, the cat would start destroying things, likely starting with Leu-Fa.

Cologne had never seen Ranma's cat side angry, but she sure as hell didn't want to, and she didn't want to see it destroy the village out of revenge. Walking forward, she cleared her throat. "Ranma?" She asked, clearly.

The cat didn't take his eyes off of Leu-Fa, but he did somehow manage to twitch an ear at the word. 'Well, it looks like this is my karmic punishment.' The old woman thought, before continuing. "If you can understand me, I just want you to understand one thing. What was done to you, and what is likely about to happen to your daughter, was not the fault of the entire village, but several misguided elders… including myself, and the woman in front of you."

The cat did understand. Or at least, he understood enough. Now, he knew that the woman who was menacing his cub had also been responsible for trapping him in the black place. Instantly, his hackles rose, and the crackling aura around his limbs started to get more powerful.

"Cologne, you fool, what have you done?" Leu-Fa hissed, glaring across the square at her fellow elder and taking her staff away from Nodoka's neck to point it angrily at her. In retrospect, that was quite possibly the stupidest tactical move of her entire career as Nodoka immediately rolled away from her. With his cub now out of immediate killing range, the cat leapt.

A few moments later, Soap gulped and turned away from the scene. "I… think I'm going to be sick." He said, his face turning green. He had seen a lot of things die in his life. After all, he helped the tribe's hunters quite often. Hell, he'd even seen a few humans die. This, though, went beyond anything he'd ever seen before.

Nodoka, on the other hand, was just relieved that she no longer had a village elder's staff at her throat, but was also trying to piece everything that had happened together. Fortunately for her piece of mind, she hadn't looked back to where the elder had been yet.

All she knew was that she and her brother had arrived to see that guy fighting two of the village's elders. Then, elder Leu-Fa had grabbed her and threatened her life in order to stop him. That, in itself, was pretty hard to believe, but what elder Cologne had said afterwards was stranger. '…likely about to happen to your daughter…' Who was his daughter? Looking back to the man, she saw that the elder had apparently been taken from him. He stood on all fours, the lower half of his arms covered in blood, and she shuddered to think what had likely happened. Just then, he turned towards her, showing his face… and it began to rain.

Instantly, the man's body began to shimmer, similarly to how she vaguely remembered Shampoo and her father's curses doing, and the man shrank at least six inches. "No, it…" the auburn haired girl gasped, taking off her glasses for a moment and rubbing them on her tunic. Putting them back on, she still saw the same thing. Her mother was laying in the tournament square, her arms covered in blood, and the tatters of her clothing just barely covering her modesty.

HR.

It had been several minutes since the incident in the village square, and Nodoka, Cologne, and Soap all stood around a bed in Rinsa's house where the red haired woman lay, unconscious.

"All right, what just happened?" Soap demanded, tactlessly, as Nodoka looked down at her mother uncertainly.

"It is a very long story." Cologne said, sighing.

"Well, can you try and tell it anyway? Please elder?" Nodoka asked, looking down at the old woman with a lost expression.

Cologne nodded. "A few years before either of you were born, my great granddaughter, Shampoo, was beaten in combat by an outsider male."

"But, Shampoo married dad, he's not an outsider, is he?" Nodoka asked, and got an annoyed look from Cologne.

"No, it wasn't your father. Now, if you wouldn't interrupt…" She said, receiving a slight nod from the two. "The boy didn't want to marry Shampoo. He was engaged to another girl from his own country, and he put up a rather heavy resistance." Cologne explained, deciding not to make things too complex at the moment.

"Shampoo was about to accept the dishonor of the failure and return home, when the boy did something that made the tribe's high council determined to have him, no matter the cost." At the two younger Amazons' curious looks, Cologne shook her head. "That's not important to this situation." She said, dismissively. "As I was saying, they wanted him, and his blood, in the tribe, and they gave me a very strict time limit to do so."

She looked down at the sleeping face of the redhead in the bed, and sighed. "I ended up using the Xi Fa Xiang Gao Shiatsu technique to erase his memory, then I locked him into one form so that his Jusenkyo curse wouldn't activate and reverse the effects."

Nodoka and Soap were both about to ask what that had to do with what happened today, when the penny dropped. Rinsa had amnesia of her early life. Both of them knew that and they had just seen a man they'd never seen before turn into her when the rain started. "That means you…" Nodoka said, looking pale. "That's…. horrible! No, this can't be… there's no way." She sank to her knees next to the bed, looking into her mother's face.

As she did so, the older redhead's eyes fluttered open, and she caught her gaze. "Nodoka?" She croaked, softly.

"Mom, you're all right! Tell me what Elder Cologne just said isn't true, please!" Nodoka begged, her eyes filling with tears as she hugged her mother fiercely.

"What… the old gh… the elder is here?" The rather confused redhead said, looking around.

"So, judging by that nickname, you've remembered everything?" Cologne asked, sighing.

"I…" The redhead said, slowly, before her eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment. "Oh, kami, I…" Her facial expression changed dozens of times within a few moments, as two conflicting worldviews suddenly tried to influence the same person's actions at the same time.

It was almost like having two different people in her head, screaming for her to do different things, but worse because they were both her, and both had the same amount of validity.

Disentangling herself from Nodoka's grip, the person who was both Ranma and Rinsa hung her head over the edge of the bed, and threw up her breakfast. At the moment, it was about the only thing her two halves agreed on.

"Mom?" Nodoka asked, while she and Soap both looked at the retching older woman in concern.

After a few moments, the redhead raised her head, grimacing at the taste left in her mouth. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. "This is… really confusing. Hell, right now I don't even know what my name is."

Cologne nodded. "That is understandable."

The redhead suddenly turned to look at Cologne, and she gave the matriarch a hard glare. "You, get the hell out of here." She barked.

Cologne sighed. "Well, yes… I suppose that is a far better reaction than I could have hoped for." She mumbled, and exited the room.

"Do… do you want us to leave as well?" Soap asked, uncertainly, and the redhead looked back to see both he and Nodoka looking at her nervously. She sighed, and let her legs fall off of the bed on the opposite side from where she was sick. Standing up shakily, she walked towards the two and grabbed them both by the hand. "I don't want either of you to go anywhere, if you're willing to stay." She said, trying to muster a smile. "Even if I'm not sure of much else, you're both my kids… if you don't mind the problems I've suddenly got."

The response was very quick, as Nodoka threw her arms around her mother's neck, crying with relief into her chest. Soap only rested a hand on her shoulder, but his grin stretched from ear to ear. The red haired woman found herself tearing up as well, though now she could hear her father saying how it wasn't manly in her head. Not particularly caring, she hugged Nodoka back and rubbed her back gently.

HR.

The redhead sighed as she packed the last of her rations into her backpack. "There, that should be enough to last for a while." She said, snapping the top of the backpack closed, and testing its weight. Luckily, she hadn't lost a lot of muscle tone since Nerima, and she was capable of lifting the pack easily.

Taking out a glass that she'd brought from the bathroom beforehand, she dumped it slowly over her head, and promptly shifted into a taller, male form, which both felt more comfortable and foreign at once. "May as well get used to this again and make the pack easier to carry." He muttered.

As he was strapping the thing on, he heard the sound of someone knocking on the door. "Come in!" He called, easily. Seeing Cologne opening the door, he narrowed his eyes. "What do you want, Ol… el… Cologne?"

Cologne wanted to be offended, but she had, truthfully, expected a much more hostile reaction. "The council has finished deliberating." She said. "Most of the members who are on it now weren't around when…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "At any rate, they understand your motives for what you did when you killed Leu-Fa, but they can't really forgive you for killing an elder." Seeing the black haired man about to say something, she raised her hand. "They've decided to exile you."

The man snorted. "Well, I was planning to leave anyways, if only to sort myself out."

"That's good to hear, then." Cologne said. "And what of Nodoka and Soap?"

"I'll ask them." He replied, simply.

"Ah, so I should tell the council that they are off training, then." Cologne said, knowingly. Turning, she started to leave the room, but turned back at the door. "Oh, and I know that this will probably mean little to you, but… good luck."

The conflicted individual just grunted non-comittaly, before settling the pack on his shoulders and starting for the door.

HR.

"So, are you sure that you want to come?" Nodoka sighed at that question, looking over at the person wearing the pack who was her mother, and currently male.

"How many times are you going to ask us that?" She asked, evenly, hitching her own pack up.

The other just shrugged. "I'm being exiled, not you two… I could understand if you want to stay."

Soap shook his head. "No way. We don't want to lose you too, so we're going." He said, resolutely, staring into bright blue-grey eyes and daring their owner to disagree with him.

"All right, let's go, then." The older black haired man responded, and the three started walking through Joketsu Zoku's main gates. From several hundred feet away, Elder Cologne watched them leave, raising her cane in a silent salute. They were technically her last living relatives, and she hoped that they would be back soon. For now, though, she had a lot of things to take care of. Sighing, she turned and walked into the main council building, as the three travelers faided into the distance.

END.

I hope you actually enjoyed this one. Please R&R.

Omake, Omake, Omake. (Axelrad:This actually happened.)

Rinsa's eyes narrowed for a second. "Tokyo, that's in Japan, isn't it?" She asked. "We're in the Chinese interior right now, Qinghai province."

Ryoga processed this for a moment, and then blinked rapidly. "Oh… we are? Akari's going to kill me!" He yelled, and then started running east as quickly as he could.

"But Japan is… west…" Rinsa said, and then looked oddly at her script. Reading it to herself again, she sweat dropped. "Um, wait, isn't Japan to the east?"

Moments later, after she stood there uncomfortably with the cameras rolling, an annoyed Ami Mizuno ran on-stage and read over the script. "Japan is... west... yes, that's what it says." She mumbled, then turned to glare at something behind the camera. "Weebee, I told you, we have to stop relying on Ryoga for navigation! Now he's confusing the rest of us!"

* * *

**Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Homeword Bound**

* * *

Well, another chapter of this thing. Guess it makes it a series, which probably annoys many people, not least of which is me.

Anyhow, here you go. I hope you enjoy this.

Chinese is in "quotes."

Japanese is in ""Double Quotes.""

This will be reversed in future chapters, as they will mostly take place in Japan.

Chapter 1, Homeword Bound

The Joketsu-Zoku village lay, peaceful, as the sun set gradually in the western sky. On the outskirts, the guards weren't entirely as attentive as they normally would be, but given the heat of the summer sun, and the fact that the Musk hadn't been seen in the area for several months, there really wasn't much to be concerned about.

In her garden, Rinsa worked, humming softly to herself as she thought of how much this current crop of vegetables would be worth, and how she could perhaps use it to get some new battle armor forged for Nodoka and Soap. Raising her head from her task, she winced as the glare of the setting sun stabbed into her eyes, and brushed her hand across her brow, even though there was no sweat there. Adjusting her hat to keep the suns rays out of her eyes, the Chinese woman was about to get back to work, when a loud explosion reverberated from the perimeter of the village.

Looking up again, this time very sharply, she saw a curling cloud of black smoke floating into the air, and then heard yet another tremendous explosion, sending up another cloud. Jumping to her feet, the woman started for her house, running to get the battle-axe she kept there in case of emergencies. When the entire village was attacked, even the workers fought, and she had been trained just enough with the weapon to handle herself and not cut her feet off.

As she dashed through the front door, the redhead's mind briefly lingered on a small photograph that sat on the shelf above the fireplace. It showed Shampoo, Mousse and herself, along with Nodoka and Soap, both still very young, sitting on their mothers' shoulders. Shaking her head, she chastised herself. Both of them were with the other young warriors on the front lines, most likely, but now was not the time to worry about that.

Heading out into the street, the nervous Amazon could hear the crackling sound of fire, and as she looked she saw that a raging inferno had started near the village gates. Turning away from it, she headed for the square, where all of the children gathered, along with the old and infirm. "What in the goddess's name is going on?" She called, as she saw Douve, a potter who she sometimes had tea with, running up from the other direction.

"I have no idea!" The man reported, sounding shaky. "The guards mentioned something about a glowing male…" He was interrupted as several Amazon warriors ran down the street that lead into the main square, an elder at their head, and running full tilt for the main gate.

"Well then, we should get everyone to the shelters." Rinsa decided, trying to ignore that she'd seen a flash of auburn hair in the group of warriors who had just run by. "All right, let's go!"

Everyone nodded, and Rinsa's small group moved away from the fighting and towards a cliff-side that made up one wall of the village's surrounding fence. No one spoke for the next five minutes or so, though several of the smaller children cried. As the group was about to enter the shelters, Rinsa looked back, seeing the entire village ringed around with flames. As she watched, a huge tornado exploded from the middle of the rubble, drawing the smoke and debris into it like a giant vacuum cleaner.

Rinsa gaped, transfixed, until, somehow, the world seemed to slow down and one section of the scene before her magnified itself. There, in the funnel cloud, she could see two figures. Nodoka was flying through the air limply, a long sword impaled through her chest, while Soap was whipped around viciously, several of the chains that were a part of the style he'd inherited from his father flailing unpredictably.

"No!" The horrified mother screamed, and the world blurred around her until she stood at the base of the tornado, where a somehow familiar man stood, one hand raised in the final blow of a Hiryu Shoten Ha, while the other clutched elder Cologne by the throat.

Running up to the monster who had destroyed her village, killing dozens of innocent people including her daughter, Rinsa tried to punch him in the chest, finding that the sloppy and rage filled strike didn't even move him. "Why?!" She screamed, loosing another punch, and another, and…

…another, as the old man dodged his blows irritatingly well. "Gee, ol' man, you're doin pretty good this mornin." He exclaimed, panting for breath slightly as he landed from the flurry of blows.

"Feh, you've just been slacking off, boy!" Genma Saotome bellowed, though under his harsh words, there was just the slightest presence of a grin. "What's wrong with you, boy?"

Ranma snorted with disgust, falling into a defensive stance as Genma lunged, his large, meaty fists raining down in slow though hard to predict patterns. Ranma instantly started to devise a counter, the rush of battle pounding in his ears as it always did, and his mouth set in a confident smirk.

As Ryoga's umbrella sailed past his head, he slid to the ground, catching the lost boy in a grapple, and flipped backwards on his hands, feeling his muscles groan in protest as the hold forced the Hibiki boy over his head and smashing head-first into the ground. "Hey, that was a dirty trick, you bastard!" The lost boy complained, pulling his head free with a shower of earth.

"Aw, yer just jealous 'cuz you didn't think of it first, P-chan." Ranma jeered, flipping to his feet.

"Ranma, are you finished playing with your little friend?" Kasumi Tendo's voice drifted in from the side, causing the pigtailed martial artist's head to turn.

"Huh?" He asked, just barely rolling out of the way as his father tried to clout him with a sign.

"Breakfast is ready!" Kasumi returned, only sounding a little annoyed if you had known her for as long as Ranma had. The pigtailed boy smirked, running for the house as his father tried to catch him and failed, plowing into the wall next to the porch door with a loud thump.

"Heh heh, Pop! Who's been slackin off!" Ranma laughed, backing into the room.

Bumping into something soft, he looked back to see his mother smiling fondly at him, where he'd accidentally bumped into her. "Are you quite done, son?" She asked. "Taunting your father like that isn't exactly manly, you know."

"Oh, erm…" The pigtailed boy said, then shrugged. "Sorry, Mom… but what's ta eat today?" As if to answer his question, Kasumi came walking out of the kitchen, several large plates balanced in her hands. He wasn't sure what was on them, since it smelled sort of like a mix of all his favorite foods, but whatever it was it smelled really good.

Sliding into place at his usual seat, the pigtailed martial artist saw Akane throwing him an irritated glare. "Did you have to make so much noise this morning, jerk?" She snapped, yawning.

Ranma thought of retorting with a venomous remark, but bit it back. Today, he was simply in too good a mood. Looking into the blue-black haired girl's eyes, he smiled at her. "Sorry 'bout that, Akane."

"Hmm, are you feeling all-right?" The tomboyish younger Tendo said, looking at Ranma in concern.

"Yeah." The pigtailed martial artist said, uncertainly rubbing the back of her neck… wait, when had she changed into a girl? Suddenly the world seemed to spin around her, and she was somewhere dark, being held down. "What… what's happening?" She gasped, fear rising in her chest for no reason that she could place.

Looking around, she could no longer see her family, the dojo, or any of the Tendos. "Wh… where am I?"

"Now now, don't worry daughter-in-law." Cologne's voice echoed from the darkness, causing the redhead to shudder. "I'm afraid you've forced us to this, but don't worry. I'm sure you'll be happy in the end."

"Wha… no…" Ranma started, before a pair of lips closed over her own. Reaching out, panicked, her arms encircled a strong and definitely male back. As Mousse's hands started roaming over her body, she couldn't stop it… no, she… didn't want to? With that realization, she started…

Screaming, sweat dripped down Ranma's face as yet another convulsion overtook her. Abruptly, the world around her snapped into focus, and she saw Shampoo sitting next to her, holding her hand. "Wha…?" She started, panting for breath.

"Don't worry Rinsa, only a few more…" The Amazon said, smiling at her supportively.

"But… no, this isn't right." Ranma stammered, her eyes darting around the room. "This isn't supposed to happen!"

Shampoo looked at her, sadly. "I know, but for the tribe, some things have to be done." She said, her face distorting into a parody of her cursed form, that same sad smile twisting its features.

"No!" the little redhead screamed again, and the scene changed. She was no longer heavily pregnant, but rather, standing in the middle of a field of wreckage, once again in male form, with his hand stretched to the sky. Realizing that he was holding something in his other, he noted that it was the dead, mangled body of Cologne.

He was about to open his mouth, when he felt something smacking into his chest. Given the amount of Chi reinforcement he was currently giving his body, he barely felt it, but looking down, he saw the visage of an incredibly angry red haired woman, her Chinese dress ripped badly by the debris that had spun through the air around them.

"How could you do this?" She screamed, "Why?" Then, she stopped, as if something had just occurred to her, and she collapsed to the ground, emptying her stomach into the dirt. "How… how could the village do that?" She whispered, horrified.

For several moments, neither of them spoke, before the man lowered Cologne's body gently, setting her on the ground. "I… wondered." He mumbled, silently. "I wondered why I never… and now…" He shook his head. "This wouldn't satisfy me for what's been done, would it?"

She looked up, wiping her mouth dry on the sleeve of her dress. "I couldn't do it." She said, simply. "And I don't think you could either." At the man's nod, she asked, "Then… what do we do?"

"There's no we here!" The man snarled, his aura flaring into existence around him. "You never existed."

She shook her head, sadly. "You know that's wrong." She whispered, and two younger people faded out of the smoke that surrounded them, both Soap and Nodoka, no longer hurt. "My life in the village was meaningless," She admitted, "But theirs are not, and because of that, you can't discard me and pretend I never happened."

The man snorted. "I really hate ta admit it, but you got a point." He mumbled, reluctantly, then sighed. "Okay, so… wadda we do?"

"I honestly have no idea." She replied, causing him to barely resist a face fault. "But, one thing you said is correct… there shouldn't be a 'we' here." He looked at her, confused, so she elaborated. "You know what I'm talking about."

He nodded. "But… I don't…"

"I know, neither do I." She returned, and then walked forward, taking a hand in hers and looking into his eyes comfortingly. "I know what you lost, and you know the same about me. We have to do this… if nothing else, for those two, and to keep from going insane."

He nodded, reluctantly, and moved his hands up to embrace her. They only shook for a moment, as the two drew closer in a way that was oddly extremely intimate and yet so far from romantic that the thought never crossed either's mind. As the process completed, they awoke.

HR.

Nodoka's sweeping sword blow clanged off of something in her brother's sleeves, and she flipped backwards, avoiding the several blunted training daggers that he threw in reply. The two had started a spar shortly after they had woken up, in hopes that it would help take their minds off of what had happened over the last few days. So far, it hadn't been successful, but that was sort of to be expected.

As the auburn haired girl effortlessly parried yet another strike, dancing under her brother's defenses and almost getting him in the stomach with a blow that caught for a moment in his white shirt, she cursed. If she'd been using an actual broadsword, rather than the wooden training weapon, that would never have happened but she would have also likely eviscerated the other fighter with any attacks he couldn't block.

Capitalizing on this artificial distraction, Soap loosed a small brace of chains along with more training daggers, most of which got Nodoka around the arms. Unfortunately, the ones that hadn't flew past her and towards the camp site, and as Soap looked, a horrified expression suffused his face.

Turning in her bindings, Nodoka noticed that the flap of the tent was open, and a rather tired looking black haired face was peering out. She tried to move forward, stumbling over her chains and bringing her brother down with her, and then the man looking out at them did something rather surprising, his hands blurring and plucking the three daggers that were destined to smack him in the face out of the air.

"You two are worse than my father." The man said, dropping the knives to the ground. At those words, Nodoka actually smiled, since there had been a marked change in him since the night before. As the three had walked along the trail, or even while they were preparing in the village, it had always seemed to her that he was holding himself back from some great, and likely violent, outburst

"Um, I'm sorry." Soap said, uncertainly. "Are you feeling well this morning?"

The man smiled at the two of them for a moment, and in that instant Nodoka could see a marked similarity to a sort of exasperated, fond look her mother gave her often. "Yes, I'm fine. Now do you want to get your sister up and help get breakfast ready?"

Soap nodded, offering Nodoka a hand up and helping unwrap her, as the man stepped out of the tent, wearing one of Mousse's old robes that he'd packed. Truth to tell, there wasn't really much else in the village that would fit his male form and still not fall off of his cursed form, especially since, apparently, the former had grown another two inches in the sixteen years it hadn't been seen, while the later hadn't.

As he rummaged through the pack he'd brought to find something to eat, the man heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Looking up, he noticed Nodoka carrying a pot towards him, before she tripped over a tree root, sending the contents, water gathered from the river for the fire, right into his face. "Hmm, I didn't need a bath this morning." The red haired woman grumbled, then looked back down, sighing in relief that the food hadn't gotten too wet.

"Oh, Mom, I'm really sorry!" Nodoka stammered. "I can't believe I didn't see the root there."

The redhead shrugged it off. "Jusenkyo draws water." She explained, shortly. "I was sort of wondering how I stayed in one form all day yesterday." Then, she frowned, her eyes narrowing in thought. "You know… that's the first time you've called me that since we started."

"Well, I…" Nodoka started, caught off-guard, and realizing that the slightly shorter woman was correct.

"Yeah, don't worry. I… just didn't think about how hard this probably is on you two." The older woman replied, shaking her head. "Help me make breakfast, and we'll talk about it afterwards, all right?"

Nodoka nodded, starting to gather various rocks and stones from around the clearing, and piling them into the shape of a fire pit as the other started preparing several ingredients.

HR.

A short time later, Soap, Nodoka and their only remaining parent were sitting around the fire, and finishing up bowls of cooked fish and rice. As the redhead finished her last bite, she spoke up. "I've been thinking of what we should do, and I wanted to clear the idea with you two."

Both younger Amazons blinked, and then Nodoka glared at her mother irritably. "I already told you that we're going with you." She started, and Soap was about to jump in, when the redhead raised her hand.

"Not what I meant, I know how stubborn both of you are and I figure I'm stuck with you. No, I mean I can change plans if you don't like mine." She explained, then continued. "There's only two places where I know how to live, other than just wandering the countryside. One of them is the village, and I am not returning there." As they listened intently to what she had to say, both teenagers were surprised to see their elder's hand tighten on her bowl, shattering it, as she considered the Joketsu-Zoku. Frowning, she put it aside.

"The other place I can think of is a small district in Tokyo, in Japan." She sighed for a moment, recalling the place. "I… had family there, and I at least want to see if they're all right."

Seeing that the explanation was finished, Nodoka and Soap looked at each other. They had known that they were leaving the village, and suspected that it may be permanent, but they hadn't expected the incredible distance they would have to travel. Both seemed to think about it individually, trying to remember all of the stories that they'd heard about Japan. Other than that the place was rather hostile to foreigners, but not nearly as regulated as PRC controlled China, that wasn't very much. ""Japanese too bad, but I go."" Nodoka said, trying her best at the language.

""You really should have sat in on the classes I took."" Soap replied, looking superior.

""Don't worry, Nodoka. My Japanese's pretty bad, too, and I was born there."" The older redhead chuckled. "So, you're both gunna go?"

Both nodded, and she sighed in relief. It had been the thought of those two, as well as her family back home, that had kept her from going berserk in the village or quietly slitting her belly open when she'd left it, though, as she thought of that and looked up at Nodoka, she had to wonder if the woman the girl had been named after wouldn't demand she do that, anyways.

Trying to shake off that thought, she shrugged. "All right, then we start out of Joketsu-Zoku territory later today." She decided. "Let's break camp."

"Right, Mom." Nodoka said, quickly, and the red haired woman blinked, remembering something.

"Oh yeah, that's something else we should probably get cleared up." She mumbled. "I noticed Nodoka didn't call me that in my male form."

The girl looked a little uncomfortable, shifting in her seat. "I know, it's just… it's hard to put you together with that big guy in my head," She admitted, looking apologetic.

The older redhead shrugged. "It's fine, Nodoka-chan. It would be a little odd, anyways. Just call me Ranma when you're not comfortable calling me Mom, all right?" She gave a crooked grin. "Plus, it'll save us some strange looks."

"Yeah, all right." The auburn haired girl said, before jumping to her feet and running off to the tent excitedly.

"She seems a lot more cheerful today." Ranma muttered, confused.

Next to her, Soap shrugged as he stood. "She's glad to see some feelings out of you, Mother, and so am I. It was almost as if you were in the soul of ice, ever since…" He shook his head, and was surprised by the response.

"I was."

HR.

Later that day, the three travelers were hiking through a small valley near the edge of Amazon territory. Ranma was in the lead, once more in male form, while the two younger warriors were behind him. In order to go faster, the three had taken to bouncing from rocks or trees, though Nodoka found herself out-pacing her brother in this, mostly due to his weapons, and her better speed.

As the auburn haired girl once more swung around to land next to her brother, she smirked at him. "Finding it hard to keep up?" The older boy just grunted in irritation, sweeping the hair from his face. Nodoka laughed for a moment, then turned her attention forward, noticing Ranma take another easy leap to land him farther in front of them. "That's really hard to get used to." She muttered.

"That we've found out your mother was originally male?" Soap asked, then immediately winced, both at the tactlessness of the remark, and the fact that he'd thrown off the rhythm of his breathing.

Nodoka shook her head, surprising her brother. "No." She answered. "That's really strange, but not what I meant. I mean, she… he…" She threw up her hands. "I never imagined mom as a martial artist."

Soap nodded in agreement. "Well, she did fight with the council often enough." He mumbled, recalling how she'd had to argue to get Nodoka's glasses sent in from a nearby village.

Nodoka gave him a dirty look. "That's not what I meant." She exclaimed irritably, then continued, while looking at the person who was bounding in front of them. As she did so, she noticed him looking back, concerned, and realized that they had fallen behind a lot. Speeding up and grabbing her brother's arm, she finally spoke again. "How… how do you think Japan's going to be?" She asked, quietly.

"Are you having second thoughts about this?" He asked, worriedly.

"After what I heard the village did, I would have had to leave even without Mom going." Nodoka replied, glaring for a moment. "I… I'm just a little worried, that's all."

Soap frowned a little, knowing what that was code for. No Amazon warrior was supposed to admit to fear, but worry was fine. "It'll be all right." He said, finally, just as something landed on the branch next to them.

"Hey, are you two all right?" Ranma asked, concerned, as he offered a canteen of water that he'd withdrawn from his pack. "We can break for lunch, if you want."

Both of the others shook their heads, though Soap took the offered water with a nod. "We're fine." Nodoka said, though she got another unsure look from Ranma. "Let's keep going."

"All right." Ranma said, dashing off again, and the other two started after him. Unseen to the three, a fourth figure ran off through the brush nearby.

HR.

"These people are idiots." Cologne, elder of the Joketsu-Zoku, muttered to herself as she exited the elders' main meeting hut. Of course, she had the good sense not to say this too loudly, but the outburst was pretty well unavoidable. Only two days before, they had seen one of their own, the leader of the council, ripped to shreds. This, naturally, angered them but Cologne had thought that an explanation of what had been done to provoke the attack would mollify their angry mutters.

It had, mostly. A lot of the people who were now on the council were the heirs to the ones who had been on it when Rinsa had been inducted into the village, and had no idea of the dirty dealings that their mothers had committed. Still, there was a core of Leu-Fa's old supporters, a small, but vocal and influential, group that was still baying for the former villager's blood.

As Cologne walked down the main street, heading for her home, she could also feel the eyes of many of the village's civilians, and a lot of its younger warriors, piercing her back with glares.

Apparently, Nodoka and Soap had let slip what had happened before they'd left. Cologne would have suspected them of doing it deliberately, if it weren't for the fact that Nodoka had been the first one who'd started spreading the story, and much like her mother, she didn't have a political bone in her body. As it was, a LOT of people knew what had been done, and didn't approve. Granted, the Amazon village condoned a lot of things, but mind altering and love magic on that scale was definitely not one of them.

The revelation of the council's questionable actions had shaken the people's faith in them, and, though she'd probably saved them from death by rage fuelled Neko-ken master, the blame lay almost entirely on her. Yes, this was going to be a long day, but then, she supposed she deserved it, and probably more.

HR.

"King Herb, there's an Amazon party proceeding towards the border between their territory and ours!" A scout yelled, as he charged into the main palace of the king of the Musk Dynasty. The man in question looked up, putting down a trade proposal from a nearby village, and looked at the man levelly with his one remaining eye.

In wartime, he would have yelled at the scout for bringing such a minor incursion to him rather than one of the generals, but given how little else was going on, he could forgive, and almost feel thankful for, the intrusion. "How many?" He asked.

"Three, one experienced warrior and what look like two students." The man reported, quickly.

Herb frowned, bringing his left arm up to rub at his chin. "What are those insane old women up to now?" He asked, softly. Seeing that the soldier was about to respond, Herb raised a hand to silence him. "Rhetorical question." He exclaimed, exasperatedly. Sometimes, he wondered if the power boost breeding with animals caused was worth it, as the fox-man before him, like many others, had remarkably little intelligence.

Standing, the blue and white haired man smirked. "I think it's time that I got some exercise. I will go and destroy this group myself. Where are these Amazons?"

"They're to the west, by the river, but…" The scout said, slowly.

Herb cut him off again, this time looking very irritated. "I can handle myself, boy." He snapped, and turned to leave the room. Jumping into the air, he used a much more sophisticated version of the ability to hover that he had once had, taking off over the village.

HR.

"Hmm, try moving your foot like this next time." Ranma said, as he stood in a clearing with Nodoka and Soap, moving his leg through a swift, hard looking sweep kick in the air. "Doesn't put you off balance for as long."

"Thanks.' Soap returned, sinking into a stance again as the older martial artist ducked back, and out of the combat area.

A few minutes later, when he'd managed to catch Nodoka with the kick, sending her sliding back, Ranma called a halt to the spar, rushing in and checking the girl over. Nodoka laughed, brushing herself off as she pulled herself to her feet. "I'm fine Mom, I mean Ranma, don't worry." She exclaimed, straightening her glasses.

"Sorry." Ranma mumbled. He knew there had been a reason why she'd never gone to watch Nodoka's sparring sessions in the village, and it was because she had always worried whenever the girl took a serious hit. It was much the same for Soap, but not nearly as bad, especially since he actually had some pretty decent armor hidden under his robes.

For a moment, the black haired man wondered if that was why Mousse had always been so stupidly resilient when wearing his robes, but was pulled out of his train of thought when Soap spoke up, asking him something. "How do you know so much about how a Hidden Weapons fighter should move?" He asked, out of the blue.

Ranma shrugged, not thinking as memories both sixteen years old and brand new came to mind. "Fought him often enough." He said, causing the two to blink.

"You fought Dad?" Nodoka asked, surprised.

Ranma winced, then shuddered violently. "Really shouldn't have thought about Mousse." He muttered, turning pale.

Both teens winced, noting that they'd have to be careful while mentioning their father, and maybe some other things, as Ranma seemed to have a lot of things he didn't really want to think about. It was troubling for both of them that someone who had honored both Mousse and Shampoo so much before could react like that now, but then they supposed they couldn't blame him.

The three stood in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, before something broke it. A large explosion echoed from the edge of the clearing they were in, and all of them turned to see a smoldering hole in the ground, several nearby trees set on fire.

"What was that?" Nodoka demanded, falling into a defensive stance, as Soap followed suit, and Ranma leapt, just being missed by a bolt of red-gold energy that smashed a furrow in the ground where he had been.

Springing off the ground with his hands and back to his feet, Ranma noted with approval that he hadn't lost nearly as many of his martial arts reflexes as he'd thought, and then looked around for the threat. His aura sense drew his gaze upward, where a battle-scarred man in a suit of light scale armor, one arm missing, floated. He recognized the other man instantly, even if his face looked vaguely like someone had run it over with a meat grinder. "Herb?" He asked, causing both Nodoka and Soap to tense up.

Both of them knew how ruthless the Musk could be in combat, and Herb was the most powerful of all of them. Still, for some reason, he was floating in mid-air, not attacking, and staring at Ranma in disbelief.

"Saotome?" The Dragon King demanded. ""You are joining the Amazons in the war?"" He asked, in Japanese.

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "I'm not joining the Amazons in anything." He snarled, anger flashing behind his eyes. "Why did you attack us?"

Herb's eyebrow rose at the other martial artist's Chinese, only slightly tinged with an accent, and then he took in Ranma's clothing. "You never were very good at lying." He snarled, sending out another bolt, this time aimed at Soap.

The boy jumped out of its way, but it neatly sliced through a corner of his robe, and he could see the bits of metal armor underneath warping from the heat. Cursing, he dropped one to the ground with a loud clank, and lashed out at the Musk with a flurry of weapons.

When Herb returned fire with his energy bolts, Ranma did something that shocked both Amazon warriors. He extended his hand, firing a ball of bright green energy in return. The two impacted each other in mid-air, and detonated.

Herb growled, and redirected his attacks, moving in the air to keep the hidden weapons user from hitting him, while raining bolts of energy down on Ranma, wherever he went. Dodging yet another incredibly powerful blast, however, Ranma failed to notice the crater from Herb's first attack of the fight, stumbling for a moment and losing his balance.

Normally, he would have been able to recover from this in an instant, but his center of gravity was off due to the extra height he had acquired since he was last in male form, and he ended up falling backwards, staring up Herb's arm at his scowling face as he gathered a ball of energy. Just as it was let go, there was a blur from nearby, and a form appeared in front of the prone martial artist, bringing a sword out in front of itself.

Nodoka's broadsword couldn't really hold back Herb's energy blast for very long, but it was enough time for Ranma to regain his feet, grab his daughter around the waist, and jump to safety. "Are you all right?" He asked, worriedly.

Nodoka nodded numbly, gazing at the crumpled and half-ruined mass of the weapon in her hands, but Ranma noticed many burns running down the girl's arms and face. Scowling, he turned to Herb.

"That's enough." He snapped, his angry glare taking the Musk prince by surprise. "I let this sort of thing happen when I was younger, and it was only me involved, but this time you're putting my children in danger."

Herb blinked, then blinked again. "Your… children?" He asked, stopping his assault for a moment to look at his old foe in astonishment.

"Yeah." Ranma said, glaring up at him. "All we want to do is leave this area and head for the coast, but if you won't let us, I'll have to force you." He was bluffing, of course. Herb had been chucking around energy blasts that were about twice as powerful as his usual before, and didn't even really look winded, while Ranma was unfamiliar with his body, and had so little confidence at the moment that he'd had to use the Shishi Hokodan.

Much to his surprise, Herb didn't attack right away, considering the martial artist who was looking up at him. Simply by reading his aura, the Musk prince could tell that Ranma hadn't trained very much since their last encounter, and that he would lose. Also, he knew that Ranma knew this, yet the other was standing firm. "Leave." He said, simply. "Leave my land, and consider this repayment for a favor owed. I will not be nearly so kind next time."

Saying this, the floating man turned, flying off into the distance.

"A returned favor?" Soap asked, confused.

Ranma winced. "Long story." He muttered, though he couldn't help but sigh in relief. That fight wouldn't have been pretty. "Well, you heard the homicidal idiot, we have to get out of here."

Nearby, Nodoka choked when she heard that name. It sort of reminded her of what she'd heard some of the elders called when they weren't around, and her mother had been arguing with them a lot that day. Looking down at her sword sadly, she nodded, slipping the blade, with difficulty, into its sheath. "Let's go." She agreed.

HR.

Nearby, Prince Herb flew through the sky, wondering precisely what had just happened. Oh, he knew why he'd done what he had, and it had honestly been to repay a favor. Many years ago, Saotome could have left him to be crushed to death but rescued him. This, as well as instilling the healthy respect of another fighter, had gained the boy a favor.

What Herb had seen today, though, confused him greatly. Ranma had been one of the most devoted martial artists he'd ever seen, and the level the man had been at was truly pathetic. What was worse, he had seemed to have a hard time moving his own body. He knew it was Ranma, the aura said that, though it was distorted slightly from age since the last time they'd met. Still, he'd acted almost like Herb himself had when he'd first gotten his curse.

"What has happened to you, Saotome?" The Dragon King whispered. "And why do you have Amazon children?" He'd recognized the boy and girl's dress and weaponry. This, he decided, required inquiry.

END.

Note: Ranma is definitely not fully functional yet, sports fans, but things look a lot better than they did. I have no idea what's going to happen next, but let's hope Nerima's not nearly as battlescarred as Herb.

Please, R&R!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Chapter 2: The Vengeance of the Dragon**

* * *

Okay, time to man up and take the flames. Here's the next chapter, for those few who actually like this thing. And for those who don't, sorry, but I'm not precisely in control of what plot bunnies show up, y'know.

"" Still Japanese. Will switch next chapter. Sorry I lied about it being after last, but the cleanup took longer than I thought.

Chapter 2, The Vengeance of the Dragon.

"You know, this isn't what I had in mind when I came in here." Ranma drawled, as she stood in front of a mirror in the changing room with her fourteen year old daughter, studying the blue and black Chinese dress she was wearing.

"Aw, but it looks so pretty on you." Nodoka giggled, smiling more widely than she had in the past week. The redhead sighed.

"Yeah, but somehow I think I'd look pretty stupid in it as a man." She rebuked, gently. She felt sort of bad for ruining Nodoka's fun, but the two had been in this store for the better part of an hour, and that time had been mostly composed of the younger girl running around and squealing.

"Oh, yeah." Nodoka said, sheepishly. "I'm sorry, it's just that this city is so neat, and I've never been to one before."

Ranma wanted to chuckle at Nodoka calling this place a city. It was only about three times the size of Joketsu Zoku, a town that she and her father had passed both ways on their trip to Jusenkyo, but to the auburn haired girl, the place must have seemed like a metropolis, as she'd never gone anywhere outside of Amazon territory before.

"Don't worry about it," She said, finally responding to the girl's previous comment. "This kind of reminds me of some trips I used to take with my own mother."

"Really? Including the dresses?" Nodoka asked interestedly, as the two walked away from the mirror and back towards the racks. This time, Ranma was successful in steering them towards the more Gender neutral clothing.

"Yes." Ranma responded, and then seeing the other's puzzled look, she elaborated. "For a while I had to hide my curse from her, due to a promise that my father made, so I pretended to be my fiancée's cousin from out of town. Mom thought I acted way too much like a tomboy, so she'd always take me out doing things like this to try and make me act more feminine."

Nodoka snorted, then started laughing at the story. Receiving a false indignant look from her mother, she managed to get herself back under control as the older woman selected a white silk shirt. "So, um, what promise could your father have made that made it so that you had to hide from your mother?" She asked, recalling a strange part of Ranma's statement.

The redhead stopped for a moment, the shirt held up against her front, and her eyes became distant. "It's… not important." She mumbled, though as she thought, she wondered what would become of her due to it. She had proven with her nine months of pregnancy that she was hardly a man anymore, especially with what she'd had to do to get that way, which she'd been mostly able to repress so far. yet she was heading right back home, where she would have to explain this to both of her parents.

Perhaps she wanted her mother to deem her unmanly, so that she could leave what had become of her life behind, while knowing that her children would be safe? It had been them she'd used as a desperate lifeline after her main goals both as Ranma and Rinsa had been pretty well destroyed, after all… what would happen when they were safely away from the village? "Mom, are you all right?!" Nodoka's voice came to her, now seeming very worried.

"Wh… what?" Ranma asked, her eyes blinking slowly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up something you didn't want to think about." Nodoka said, hurriedly. There had been a lot of things that would send her mother off into an unthinking daze recently, and it was hard to know what was safe to talk about around her. For a moment, things had started seeming somewhere close to normal again, and then she'd asked that question.

"It's fine, No-chan." Ranma said, shaking her head and looking around herself to see that she was still holding the white shirt up against her, but that there were tiny holes in it from where her fingers had pressed it into her palm. Frowning down at the shirt, she decided that she'd pretty well bought it now regardless, and went to grab a couple more. "Sorry about that…"

Nodoka simply nodded, watching as her mother walked off towards a rack full of black pants.

HR.

About twenty minutes later, Ranma stood before the mirror in the changing room, studying her reflection. She actually looked quite similar to how she had during the time in Nerima. Though she could be seen to have aged, her face had a look about it that made her seem younger than she was, and her figure was only slightly less slim than it had been. In fact, looking at herself, her newly re-braided hair falling over one shoulder, she could almost pretend that the past twenty years as Rinsa hadn't happened.

She frowned. That wouldn't do at all. What had happened… though what had caused it was horrible, she wanted to remember it. She wasn't really sure if it was reluctance to let go of the past grievance, or a fleeting remnant of Rinsa's wish to have a peaceful life in the village, but she wanted to remember it. Reaching up, she deliberately unbraided her pigtail, re-tieing it as a loose ponytail that fell down her back.

Reaching down to a shelf next to the mirror, she picked up the water that sat there, still slightly warm from where she'd gotten it from the bathroom ten minutes earlier, and dumped it over her head. As she shifted, the clothing shifted around just as his old clothes had, though this time it was slightly tighter even though he'd bought a larger size.

Looking up and brushing his damp hair out of his eyes, Ranma studied himself again. Ironically, it had been this form that had changed the most since Nerima, as if all of the changes that his girl form had rejected had piled onto it. For one, he was a few inches taller, and his musculature had increased slightly.

Before, his build had been wiry in the extreme, and now it looked half-way normal for someone of his age. Frowning, he shrugged. This would take a lot of training to get used to, but then, training had always been one of the best ways for him to avoid thinking about things, and at the moment, he had a lot of things to avoid thinking about.

"Are you done yet, Mom?" Nodoka's voice came from outside of the room, and Ranma shook his head, opening the door and exiting.

The girl looked at him for a moment, and then blinked. "Wow, that…" She mumbled, and then slapped herself in the face.

"Nodoka, is there something wrong?" Ranma asked, worriedly.

"Nothing." The young warrior said, quickly. Thinking about how handsome her mother looked in that outfit was NOT good for her state of mind, she decided. "That looks good."

Ranma nodded. "Thanks, now let's go see if your brother's done getting those supplies."

Nodoka quickly nodded as well, and the two proceeded to the checkout to pay for Ranma's clothes.

HR.

The Amazon sentry stood at his post, tired and nervous. He had been one of the two who had been on duty a week before, when the incident with Rinsa had occurred, and he was half expecting to see some other random worker dashing across the roofs.

He just couldn't believe the rumor that had been circling the village about the events. He'd met Rinsa, as he'd bought some vegetables from her on occasion and the woman was one of the friendlier in the village. Truth to tell, he had had a little crush on her. That had been, of course, until he'd seen the transformation and heard the story.

Now, he pitied her, or him, or whatever Rinsa finally chose to become, and he was afraid. Most of the villagers were, wondering precisely what else the elder council had done, and if any of them had been somehow… changed.

Turning his gaze away from the village's rooftops, the guard blinked as he saw a figure on the main road. He knew that if his partner hadn't been away reporting in at the moment, she would have had his hide for his inattentiveness, but he quickly made up for it, taking a pair of binoculars from around his neck and zooming in on the figure. When he'd finished focusing, he saw that it was a male, wearing armor that gleamed slightly in the sun, and carrying a flag that marked peaceful intent.

Studying the man's face, the Amazon boy's eyes widened, and he let his binoculars fall from nerveless fingers. "Wh… what?" He stammered, and then jumped off of the wall, dashing for the center of the village and calling "King Herb is here, and he has come alone!"

HR.

Cologne stood on the opposite side of the main village square from the ruler of the Musk dynasty, her position on her staff rather shaky at best. The two tribes hadn't been on speaking terms since the trade summit many years ago, when a grave insult had been dealt by one side or the other, and they'd gone to war. Now, the king of the Musk stood before her, having ventured into their territory alone.

She, of course, knew why he had done this. Though the many injuries he'd taken in combat slowed him down, Herb had taken them defeating the tribe's greatest combatants, and therefore had little to fear from what was left. "King of the Musk, why do you enter the village of the Amazons?" The old woman asked, for a brief moment feeling bad that Leu-fa had disappeared, if only because she had to deal with this as the most senior member of the group.

"I come to ask after the status of one I consider an ally." Herb returned, evenly. "I wish to know what you know of Saotome Ranma."

Cologne's eyes widened, and her face paled as she heard that statement. She'd known that Herb and Ranma had fought. After all, she'd seen the seeds of the battle planted, but she had no idea that they had been allied. "Wh… why do you wish to know what we know of Saotome?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Because, I saw him leaving this region with two young Amazons, whom he claimed were his children." Herb returned. "I was unable to question him," He winced as he remembered the hostile look on his old opponent's face before he had told the three to leave, "So I came here, to question you."

"Tell him nothing!" The voice of one of the other elders snapped from the crowd surrounding the two. "The one who killed Leu-fa, and her dishonorable spawn, are gone from this village!"

Cologne looked back to the other old woman and narrowed her eyes at such stupidity. It had been clear that the former matriarch had picked her higher ranked council members for her influence, not their tact, but this was getting ridiculous.

Herb looked surprised for a moment, and then chuckled. "Saotome killed that old bat?" He asked, letting his formality slip for a moment. "I really should have thanked him when I saw him."

Cologne winced. The situation was spinning drastically out of her control, and she was uncertain of how Herb would react to what had happened to Ranma, Even if the Musk did something somewhat similar to animals from the spring. "King Herb, perhaps we should retire to my quarters and discuss this more privately." She said, throwing a glare around the other elders. The Musk nodded tersely, and the two walked out of the square.

HR.

Herb slowly stood, his face an almost unreadable mask, though Cologne could see a small twitch in the man's good eye. "This…" he started, and then seemed to grope for words for a moment. "This is the most disgusting thing I have heard."

Cologne wasn't surprised by the man's anger at what had been done to Ranma, but what she was surprised about was how he felt about the process employed. Still, she had no real idea what to do until Herb made his own intentions clear, so she waited.

"It seems Saotome is leaving, and I doubt anything I could do would help him." The Musk prince continued. "Still, this kind of act deserves retribution."

Cologne gulped. She knew that, though they had been holding off the other group so far, the Amazon village would take much damage if they were attacked full out, and it was entirely possible, especially with one elder, and several older warriors dead, that they would be defeated. Not stopping to think, she spoke up. "Why are you, of all people, passing judgment on us for this? Your tribe does much the same thing."

Seeing the blue and white haired man's face actually contort in rage for a moment, Cologne nodded. "We have stopped that practice since I have become king," He snarled, "and what we do to animals is far different from what you do to humans."

"Oh? How so?" Cologne asked, sneering at the man.

"Jusenkyo preserves one's mind, you old fool." Herb snarled. "Even as humans, those animals had the same thinking abilities they'd ever had, and to their way of thinking, were getting free mating, food and shelter for an exceptionally long life. You… you old bats destroyed a man for not conforming to your laws, and then used what was left in a way completely contrary to his wishes." By this time, the Musk's eye was flashing, and he'd brought one hand down to smash the surface of the table.

Recomposing himself, Herb started to turn around. Before he could step out of the door, Cologne stopped him. "Herb of the Musk, you have insulted my honor, and that of all of the elders of this tribe." She said, and the man spun to face her, a look of outright stunned surprise on his face. "You will fight me in a duel."

Herb's scowled. "I will be glad to." He stated, and then left the elder's hut. Unseen behind him, he heard Cologne sigh. For a moment, he wondered what that meant, but his irritation quickly overcame that concern.

HR.

It was only a few hours later when Herb found himself standing across the square from Cologne again, a Musk soldier who had been patrolling the boarder nearby standing next to an Amazon as the judges of the match. Herb had been surprised at how quickly it had come together, but apparently the villagers weren't terribly happy with elder Cologne, and the rest of the council seemed equally willing to throw her to the wolves.

"Are you ready?" The Amazon said, turning towards him as the Musk did the same for Cologne. When the two combatants nodded, the judges moved back to the edge of the clearing. Nearby, a man held up a hand gong and struck it three times. Herb moved forward and struck at Cologne with a small energy blast.

He couldn't let loose his larger attacks in the arena, as if he did and the resulting explosions destroyed anything or hurt anyone outside of it he would be attacked by everyone in the village, but he could still use a large amount of small, tightly controlled blasts to hurt the woman as he used his Chi to propel himself into the air.

Cologne, meanwhile, was moving to the side, each bound on her staff seeming to cause her to end up somewhere Herb's projectile attacks weren't. This kept up for several minutes, as Herb gained enough altitude to have a clear shot at the other no matter where she was, but then Cologne jumped off of her staff, tossing it at the Dragon King.

Herb snorted, stretching out his arm almost straight down and letting out a much larger blast, which connected with the wood and reduced it to ashes within seconds. The beam continued on, etching out a half-meter deep crater before Herb stopped firing.

Cologne didn't seem to be bothered, springing off the ground herself and changing her position in mid-air as the dragon fired at her, until she came into melee range. Herb almost didn't notice what she was doing until it was too late, but managed to slide back in the air with the hundreds of punches she suddenly threw, lessening their impacts greatly.

Still, it was a testament to the elder's power that the man's already somewhat battered armor now had several new dents, and he was losing altitude as he grunted in pain. Narrowing his eye, he propelled himself back up, lunging with a forceful punch at the woman's face which she seemed to turn and land on, bouncing off of it and into the air again.

Growling in frustration, Herb clenched his fist, forming a blade of energy at the end of his arm. "Die, old woman!" He yelled, catapulting himself through the air as quickly as possible. Cologne made an effort to get out of the way, but was far too slow as the Musk tore through her body, his blade taking off a good portion of the shoulder and one arm. Coming back he did so to the other as well, and Cologne fell from the air, a pained scream coming from her lips.

Herb followed her down, landing in front of her as she hit the earth with a thud, and walking forward. Looking down at the old woman, however, he was surprised to see something on her face other than pain. It wasn't anger, resentment that she had been defeated, or even fear for her life. The woman seemed… relieved. "Do you have anything to say, old woman?" The younger warrior asked, his energy blade still at the ready.

"Yes." Cologne said, much more strongly than Herb expected, but then he noticed that the stumps where her arms had been were not bleeding, though not sealed. She was using the pure force of her life energy to keep herself alive and coherent, something that he was unsure if he could manage with his much larger reserves.

For a moment, he contemplated lopping her head off to end this now, but pulled back, allowing her to stagger to her feet. Turning to her people, and the other elders, Cologne looked them all in the eyes as best she could. "Recall that this is what happens when Amazons forget about honor, when we let the letter of our laws pervert the spirit while at the same time breaking them. Do not allow this to happen again." She said, steadily, before stumbling and falling on her back.

For a moment, Herb looked irritated and confused by this, but then he seemed to realize something. His face ran through several emotions, including anger, sadness and admiration, before settling on disgust. "You're all fools, and it is truly a tragedy that she was one of the better of you." He snarled, and then turned, walking for the village gate and never looking back.

Normally, someone would have taken offense to what the man had said, but given what had gone on lately, a fair portion of the crowd agreed with him.

HR.

Soap grunted in irritation and effort as he and his sister carried a large, heavy crate down the stone pier. Behind them, Ranma walked in male form, and to make their irritation worse he was handling a box the same size as theirs with nowhere near as much effort. ""I don't see why we had to do this."" The boy huffed, careful to keep his breathing in rhythm. ""we were given enough money by the elder to pay our way.""

""We're going to need that money, especially if I enroll you two in school."" Came Ranma's voice from right next to the hidden weapons user, as he walked past the two with his crate.

Soap could feel Nodoka's end of the box wobble somewhat, as he heard the girl speak up indignantly. ""I finished school last…. Last…."" She fumbled for a word for a moment, then groaned in frustration. "I finished school last year, and Soap two years ago. Why do we have to go back?"

""Because you just forgot the word for year in Japanese, didn't you?"" Ranma said, looking disapproving as he walked backwards in front of the two younger people. ""Try to keep it up, you were doing all right there until you did that.""

""But won't going to one of these Japanese schools all day make us go soft?"" Nodoka said, sounding a little more confident this time.

Ranma got an odd look on his face, and then started grinning. "Not this one." He said, and then walked off, bringing the crate he was carrying to where it needed to be.

"I hate that look." Nodoka muttered to Soap, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "You know, that 'I've got a secret' look." She explained.

""Don't know why,"" Soap commented. "Last time she had one of those, you ended up with a new sword. Oh, and speak Japanese.""

Nodoka grumbled, and recalled what had happened to her sword. Still, she had to wonder what her parent was so secretive about, especially if it had to do with something as boring as a new school.

HR.

Later, after the three had finished doing the deck-hand work that had gotten them across the sea from China, Ranma walked down a street that he knew very well, but that seemed unaccountably different, for some reason. He'd considered going to the Tendo place first, but had decided against it. He had no idea how they would react to his being back, and really didn't want to have Nodoka or Soap around when he talked to them.

That meant that he either had to go see his parents, another daunting prospect, or come here. ""So, where is this place?"" Soap asked, curiously, as Nodoka simply looked around.

""Right here."" Ranma said, pointing at a large storefront that had been boarded up for what looked like decades. Withdrawing a small key from his pocket, he stepped to the place's front door and inserted it, turning it and letting the creaky old hinges announce their protest.

""Wow, this place is… really old."" Nodoka said, bluntly. ""This is where we're staying?""

""Yeah, it is pretty old…"" Ranma said, uncertainly, as he entered the Neko-Hanten. ""But for now, it's our home.""

END.

There, they're home, and stuff should start happening next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. C ya, and please R&R!

---

Sorry if this sorta traumatized you.


	13. Chobits Crossover

An odd little story beginning I had a while ago. Was planning to write more, before posting it as its own story, but I haven't been inspired on it in over four months. Think it may be getting harder to write, as CM's death shows, but I'm hoping I recover.

Hope you enjoy this, it's a snippet of Ranma/Chobits stuff that came to me a while back. Sorry for all these go-nowhere posts, guys.

Story.

She lay, unmoving and staring up at the ceiling above her as lines of text seemed to scroll in front of her eyes, but be understood subconsciously even without having to be read. Still, even though she understood the data subconsciously, all the lines "Power source at 100% charge," and "All locomotors functional" did to her conscious mind was confuse it, and make her feel vaguely good.

Blinking once, she felt that something was definitely odd as her eyelids slid down across her eyes and back up. Everything just seemed to feel… distant… somehow, though she wasn't sure how. Deciding, for once in her life, that the strangeness of the situation deserved a cessation of relaxation, the girl sat up, throwing her legs over the edge of the bed. As she did so, she felt rustling fabric around her, though the sensation was also distant, and looked down to see herself dressed in something green, and incredibly frilly. "Ack, what the hell?" She exclaimed, both indignant at what she was wearing and relieved to hear the sharp, reassuring sound of her own voice.

Standing the rest of the way to her feet, the girl stumbled slightly forward. Her balance was radically off, somehow. "Gyroscopic stabilizer active." A line of text ran past her eyes, and she was suddenly much more sure of her step.

She blinked rapidly. She wasn't at all sure what one of those was, and also rather curious at how she'd seen the text. Moving one hand, she ran the fingers across her face around her eyes, but didn't feel even any glasses that the words could have somehow been projected on.

Shrugging this off for the moment, in order to ascertain more important things, like where she was, the girl stepped slightly further away from the bed and looked around the Spartan room. "Great, did Kuno take me here after he knocked me cold?" She mumbled, and then grimaced. She would really rather not remember that fight, as she had been stupidly careless, but it looked like she wasn't quite clear of its consequences yet.

The problem with that theory was that this place really didn't look like the Kuno mansion. Where that compound was built as traditionally as anywhere in Japan, this place was all wood paneling, with a large, cedar dresser, full length mirror and four poster bed.

As she walked past the mirror, the girl noticed something odd in it, and stopped to turn towards it. The first odd thing, of course, was the fact that she was in this monstrosity of a dress, and her long red hair was cascading down her back. That was not the largest problem, however, as she noted that there were two white protrusions poking from her hair where her ears were supposed to be.

Reaching up, she ran one hand along what felt like cool plastic, and felt a small button there. Curious, she pressed the button, and a part of the white covering slid away. She felt around inside of the cavity revealed, running fingers across what felt like cable ends, plugs and a small switch. The most worrying part about this discovery was that these items appeared to be half-way sunk into her skull, with the white plastic as merely a cover. "What the hell?" Ranma Saotome breathed.

As she was gaping at herself in the mirror, the red haired martial artist heard the sound of the door nearby opening, and found herself automatically sinking into a defensive stance. She relaxed slightly when she saw that the person who was entering the room was a young girl, looking about a year younger than her, and in a maid's outfit. "The master wishes to see you." The girl said, before Ranma was able to even open her mouth.

The redhead's eyes narrowed for a moment, but then she reluctantly nodded. "Fine." She snapped, since she wanted to leave this room, regardless. The maid nodded, turning and leaving without a word, and Ranma followed her down the hall.

As she did so, she noticed that the place's opulent style had been continued past the bedroom, ornate paintings and ornamentation everywhere. Basically, the place was an all you can steal buffet for thieves, but Ranma decided against that, as she had no idea who owned the house, or what was going on. "Hey, um, who's the master?" She asked, breaking the silence as the girl continued to lead her down the hall.

The girl looked back over her shoulder for a moment, a perplexed look on her face, and then answered Ranma. "Master Kuno, of course." She said, simply.

"Was afraid you'd say that." Ranma muttered, and then started cracking her knuckles. Kuno had just finished doing... something... to her that left some weird things implanted in her head, and she wanted to know why.

As she thought about that, however, she noticed that the girl had the same white ear-covers as Ranma herself, though these ones were a lot thicker, and hung down like the ears of a black lab she'd seen once on her training trip.

She was about to ask what all the hardware was for, when the maid girl came to a stop at a set of double doors, Pushing them open, she walked into a large hall, a single long table in its middle with chairs along both sides. As Ranma stepped in past the maid, who was holding the door open, she thought the room was empty. That was, of course, until she heard the rapid sound of footsteps from nearby. Turning quickly, she saw a very familiar sight charging towards her.

Tatewaki Kuno was running at her, his arms spread wide. She was about to respond with an instinctive punt, when something stopped her. Getting a look at the charging Kendoist, his body seemed different. A little shorter, more weathered facial features, and the oddest part of all, hair that was mostly grey with a few black splotches.

"Oh, pigtailed girl!" Kuno exclaimed, grabbing Ranma in a powerful hug during her observation period. "I knew that someday, through my family's contacts, I would cure you of your horrible affliction!"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking up at the face of the faux samurai, before realizing precisely what he was doing and shoving him off of her angrily. Much to her surprise, the shove sent him stumbling back several feet, more than she could do without a much larger strength expenditure, or chi reinforcement, before. "Get off, 'n tell me what's goin on." The redhead snapped, irritably.

"I, Tatewaki Kuno, have been able to restore you to life after the horrible accident that destroyed your mind!" The blue thunder explained, though along with his pompous boasting, Ranma could see something else, something much less proud, in his eyes.

"Accident?" The martial artist repeated, now wishing that she didn't sound so much like a broken record.

"Yes, we were to use a special apparatus to preserve the lives of yourself and the beauteous Tendo Akane, before something went awry." Kuno explained, and sank into a melancholic state for a moment, before perking up. "However, now that I have restored you, we can be together for the remainder of my and your years, as I have no doubt you would have always wished."

Ranma grimaced. Now this, she was used to from Tatewaki Kuno. "You insane?" She asked, irritated, especially when she heard that whatever 'accident' had befallen her could have also effected Akane.

"You question my sanity, my love?" Kuno asked, and then started to look horrified. "Surely, the foul sorcerer's spell does not affect you even now?"

"No, you're just a lunatic." Ranma drawled, however this was obviously not the right thing to say, as Kuno drew a bokkuto from his Hakama, just as he always had, and charged her. "Damn it, I don't have time for this." Ranma grunted, raising one hand and preparing to catch the sword in a Chi reinforced grip. However, as she reached for her chi reserves, she felt... nothing?

Desperately, as the blade came at her in what seemed to be slow motion, Ranma searched for any glimmering of her Chi, but nothing was there. Even her ability to sense Chi in her surroundings seemed to have vacated her, and there was a message coming in, like all the others, that stated that the system she was trying to access did not exist.

Desperately, Ranma changed her tactic, rolling to the side as Kuno's sword came down. It didn't hit her, though it did tear a long gash down the wide skirt of her dress, which she couldn't really care less about.

As Ranma rolled to her feet, Kuno looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid I will have to defeat you and exorcize Saotome's taint." He said, striking a pose. Ranma really didn't want to do what she was about to, but given she'd just found out that she had no access to Chi, and she was still wearing the party dress from hell, she really had no choice. "Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts Special Technique!" She shouted, and saw Kuno brace. "Fast Break!"

It took Kuno several seconds to realize what had happened, and Ranma used the time well in order to get away from him. As she ran, she noticed that she was using much less effort to move, almost as if her muscles were more efficient than they should be, but for the moment she just decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and kept going.

Though she wanted to know what was going on, she had no intention of hanging around Kuno while so hampered in fighting back. Maybe she could get back to the Dojo, and ask them what had happened?

Running down a hall in Kuno's large, western house, she turned and noted a window nearby. Without thinking, she darted for it, curling into a ball and barreling through the glass, out into what looked like a rose garden.

Behind her, she could hear people running around and shouting, so she supposed Kuno had called out guards, or something. "Well, time ta get outta here." She mumbled, and headed for what looked like the outer wall of the compound. she darted for it, leaping up to its top in one bound, and rather surprised that she could still do that given that she still couldn't feel her Chi.

Almost as if in answer to that thought, several more messages appeared in front of her eyes. "Caution: Locomotor units 2, 3, and 4 approaching tolerance limits," plus a bunch of other stuff that didn't make sense. Ignoring these cryptic warnings, she jumped off of the wall and to a nearby roof, gaining yet more of them, and started off to look for someplace, or someone, familiar.

HR.

Almost an hour later Ranma winced, as yet more messages seemed to make themselves known to her. They didn't sound good. apparently, power was at critical levels, and motor-cooling systems were heavily strained.

It sounded almost like a status report on a runaway train, and she was unsure why she was getting it pumped into her head, but about all she could think about now was getting far away from Kuno, and ensuring that Akane was all right. "Now, where the hell am I?" She asked, vaguely feeling like she was stealing Ryoga's shtick, as she looked around the park where she was currently standing.

"Power Levels Critical, secondary system shutdown," The text in her head stated, and suddenly Ranma's vision blurred, almost down to a pixilated, black and white mess. At the same time, she could hear sounds getting more distant, and her body was starting to go numb. "What..." She gasped, and stumbled forward. As she did so, she lurched a little to the side, her legs slowly failing her, and smashed into a garbage can.

Falling forward, she hit the ground among the refuse, and lay for a moment, trying to regain her resolve, though it was getting harder and harder to think.

"Are you all right?" She heard a tinny voice through her failing ears. Forcing her head to turn slightly to the side, she saw what looked like a long haired female figure in a somewhat familiar looking dress. "Kasumi?" She choked. "H... help me."

After saying that, Ranma's entire world went black.

HR.

"Lord Minoru, are you all right?" The young boy looked up from his careful study of the pond before him, as he heard Yuzuki's voice from nearby.

"Hmm?" He asked.

The navy haired persocom next to him looked at him for a moment, and then sighed. "You seem to be distracted today."

"Oh." Minoru said, and then shook his head. "It's nothing, I just haven't been out of the house much, that's all." He explained. "It's nice."

"Hmm." Yuzuki replied, before both of them heard a strange sound from nearby. There was a tremendous crash, and turning, they saw what looked like a red haired woman, who had crashed full tilt into a trash can, and was now sprawled out on the ground.

Both persocom and master immediately moved to help the girl, Minoru observing that she bore the traditional port covers of a persocom herself, as she tried to drag herself to her feet.

"Are you all right?" Yuzuki asked, offering the other girl a hand.

The new persocom seemed to turn towards her voice, and stare at her blankly for a moment, before a distorted voice managed to croak out "Kasumi? H… help me." Then, she stopped moving, and the light vanished from her eyes.

"Lord Minoru?" Yuzuki asked, turning towards her young master. The boy frowned, looking at the persocom on the ground before him. Intellectually, he knew that she, as a persocom, could not be hurt but the torn dress she wore and the seeming desperation in her voice when she'd made the request struck a cord. "I wonder who Kasumi is," He mused, before shaking his head. "Yuzuki, let's get her home. If her owner is looking for her then we'll bring her back after we figure out what's wrong."

"Yes, Lord Minoru," Yuzuki said, nodding and lifting the red haired persocom with little effort. "She is unusually heavy," She reported.

Minoru nodded absently, and the two walked off towards his home.

HR. - End of Content.

Anyhow, here we have a Ranma/Chobits crossover starter. Not much in the way of plot exposition other than what happened and how here, but I can tell you that it was eventually going to have a sort of interraction with the newly awake Ranma and the NWC, as well as her original self, who has... changed, a little since nerima. Very little chobits main story interraction, I'm afraid. It's a little like the BGC fic, though it would have gone a totally different way.


	14. FKC Fic

Here's an excerpt from an idea I've been considering for a while now. It's a Ranma/Futaba-Kun Change Crossover. Hope you enjoy it.

(No Idea For A Title.)

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Ranma grumbled as he stood at the edge of Furinkan's gym, stretching, even though he knew he probably wouldn't have to. It was what everyone else who were competing were doing, and he'd picked up more recently than he probably should have that it was better to make people think he was serious about an activity they took seriously, rather than blowing it off as a joke.

Next to the pigtailed martial artist, Akane Tendo sighed. She wanted to tell her fiancé to stop grumbling, since he had agreed, but she knew that she really shouldn't, as it was at least partially her fault that he had ended up on the wrestling team for their next match.

Of course, it was more the team captain's fault for deciding that charging at her and yelling "Akane, I would date with you!" would only get him and his buddies beaten enough to increase their pain tolerances, rather than have one of them break several ribs, as had happened when flashbacks of the horde of perverts from last year had made her fly into a massive, nearly killing rage.

She was just thankful that no one had been permanently hurt, and even the wrestling team's captain admitted, once he woke up, that what he and his team had done wasn't terribly smart; but the damage had been done, and they now needed someone to fill in for the lost member of the team. She would have been willing to do it herself, but as she looked across the mat to see Furinkan's opponents, she shuddered. They were all guys, and she knew full well what wrestling entailed. She may have been trying to hold herself back from thinking everything was a sign of perversion since the failed wedding, but there was no way in hell she was going to throw herself into the lions' den like that.

"So, is da Big Kahuna's new team member ready ta show da 'Justice Makeh' how much he sucks?" Both of the Tendo Dojo's residents found it rather hard to avoid jumping out of their skins as Principal Kuno popped out of a hatch in the ground in front of them, holding a bullhorn.

"I'd be fine if ya weren't trying to cause a heart attack," Ranma grumbled, glaring at the Kuno.

"Well, ya just remember, you're gunna win yer match, or that li'l wahine there's gunna be expelled." Akane couldn't help but gulp, even if she knew that Ranma would be able to win any fight against some random highschool wrestler, and the reason for her unease became quickly obvious as the pigtailed martial artist shrugged.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," he muttered, kicking the Principal in the head and forcing him down the hole he'd come up through. Seeing Akane's worried look, he raised an eyebrow. "What're you worried about, Akane? This'll be easy."

"Yeah, well…" the youngest Tendo said, somewhat worried in spite of herself, as she noted one of the opponents' wrestlers, a mountainous looking guy with black hair in a buzz cut, shaking another, much smaller boy by the shirt. "Just, good luck, okay?"

The pigtailed martial artist smirked, but then nodded. "Thanks, Akane," he finally said before heading to meet up with the rest of Furinkan's team.

The youngest Tendo looked after the pigtailed boy for a moment, before making her way to the bleachers at the side of the gym to find a seat.

HR.

Futaba Shimeru sighed as he tried to regain his balance from where Motamura had started shaking him a few minutes before, and rubbed his neck. He understood that the other boy was rather fixated on the idea of winning this match, as he'd been talking about Furinkan High as some sort of holy grail ever since Futaba had joined the wrestling club the year before, but the smaller boy sort of wished that the team captain wasn't so excitable.

Looking across at Furinkan's side of the gym, he surveyed the team and found that it looked a lot like many other teams he'd seen — that was, a power player, a grappler, and two others who tried to cover both ends in case another team tried switching up the formula. The grappler, a lean, muscled man who looked a couple of years older than Futaba himself, was just making his way over to the rest of the team, and if things went the way they usually did, that was whom he'd be fighting.

To tell the truth, the legendary Furinkan High Wrestling Club really didn't seem all that impressive, even if they were a level above Komatain's, and Motamura had to beg the Principal for a week in order to allow this exhibition match. Granted, The Shimeru boy hadn't been around for most of that week, having been stuck in his female form and chased around the school by love crazed boys for most of it, but he'd heard about it from Takeru, who seemed almost as excited as the president, for some reason.

Shaking his head at the general weirdness of his teammates, and trying to ignore a rather tear streaked speech by president Motamura about how this match, even more than the finals of the city championship in a few months, exemplified the purity of spirit of their wrestling club, Futaba watched as a man in a loud Hawai'ian shirt made his way out into the center of the wrestling mat with a microphone that was apparently hooked directly to the school P.A. system.

"Heya everyone! Welcome ta dis exhibition match between the great Furinkan wrestling team, and our rivals from Komatain Junior High. Dis match is real special, 'cuz we gotta show dat Justice Maker who's boss, and dat he shouldn't be trowin' pineapples back at da Big Kahuna, you understand? Anyone not out dair givin one hundred and tirty percent, da Big Kahuna gunna bust out his buzzcuttin' shears!"

"That's… their school principal?" Futaba asked, suddenly feeling bad for any times he'd thought that Principal Hirouin was wierd.

"All right now, everybody, choose your fighters, 'cuz da match is gunna begin now!" Principal Kuno said, before stepping out of the ring.

Almost immediately, there was some argument on the Furinkan side of the mat, though eventually their grappler stepped forward with a confident smirk.

"Okay Shimeru, you're up," Motamura said, slapping Futaba on the back. The smaller boy immediately headed for the mat, hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with another of his captain's overwrought speeches, and spared a short glance for the bleachers behind him, where several students, including Misaki, were sitting.

For a moment he let himself look at the long haired girl as she stood up and started clapping, but immediately snapped his head away when he felt his heart start beating more quickly. Even though the gym wasn't quite as crowded as Komatain's had been during the last wrestling match he'd been in, he really didn't need to change into a girl here, especially in front of her.

As the two fighters walked to the center of the mat, Futaba sized his opponent up and noted that he had a little muscle mass on him, though that probably meant that he wasn't as flexible. The older student bowed slightly, as though he were getting ready for a martial arts match rather than a wrestling one, and Futaba decided that he should be polite by bowing back, as well as noting that he would probably be dodging more punches and kicks than usual. "Don't try'n hold back," The fighter with a pigtail at the back of his head said, casually. "I'd like this fight to be kinda entertaining."

Futaba's eyebrow twitched at the seeming insult to his skill, but he shrugged it off as trash talk and replied, "Don't worry, I won't."

As the referee stepped in between the two boys, they both tensed up, though the Shimeru boy noted that the ref looked really nervous, for some reason.

"Combatants ready?" he asked, in a rather shaky voice, and after getting a nod from both, he turned, started running, and yelled "Go!"

HR.

Misaki watched nervously as Futaba engaged his opponent, the two first moving around each other and probing for openings. The match seemed kind of slow, but then, she had seen how quickly one could get serious, and still felt the occasional twinge of pain from the Futaba Cup a few weeks earlier. As she'd expected, the two eventually got into a more close fight, though Futaba's opponent seemed to be trying to stay out of grappling range. The older, apparently heavily martial arts influenced fighter was launching quick punches and kicks at his opponent, which the younger boy was just barely dodging out of the way of.

When another of his opponent's blows sailed past the Shimeru's ear by inches, Misaki's eyes widened as Futaba's legs appeared to have flown out from under him, but narrowed again as he wrapped them around his opponent's, pulling Furinkan's wrestler down into a position where he could grab him.

The older boy appeared surprised by this tactic, attempting to wriggle free but not doing so quickly enough as Futaba managed to get him in a modified arm bar, slowly increasing the pressure.

The Furinkan combatant managed to force his way free after a few seconds, though as he rolled back and up to his feet, something seemed wrong with him. His face seemed to be red, which could happen if Futaba had squeezed too hard with his arm against the other boy's neck, though he was also looking around, confused.

The pigtailed fighter shook his head clear after a few seconds, charging back in after his opponent, though this time his strikes didn't seem nearly as precise, as Futaba was finding them easier to get out of the way of. "Come on, Futaba!" Misaki yelled, seeing that the boy actually had a chance at beating his opponent, which she hadn't been sure of so far due to the older boy's size and strength advantage.

"Gee, you're getting kind of excited here, aren't you?" Negiri asked, from where she sat next to her best friend, reading a comic.

Misaki blushed, slumping down into her chair and then looking at the blonde strangely. "Aren't you usually taking bets on this sort of thing?" she asked, curious.

"Well, I usually am," Negiri admitted, "But Furinkan's got themselves a fish a lot bigger than me, and I don't want to draw her attention."

"What, someone who's better at making money off of people than you?" Misaki asked, pretending to be shocked, but letting a small grin through at the end of her statement to show the other girl she was kidding.

"Hmph," Negiri sniffed, crossing her arms. "Shouldn't you be watching your boyfriend over there?"

Misaki was about to respond to that, when the crowd around her began to cheer, and she looked hurriedly back to the ring, where Futaba had the Furinkan combatant on the ground and was holding him down. "Strange…" she muttered, "Does that guy look really nervous to you?"

HR.

Ranma Saotome was kicking himself, and calling himself ten different kinds of idiot for holding back and giving his opponent a chance to demonstrate what he could do. Or, well, he would be if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't get some very strange thoughts out of his head. As it was, he was trying to figure out how to break out of a hold when his opponent had leverage on him, and he couldn't use chi to enhance his strength for fear he'd accidentally hurt the younger boy.

This would normally not be an issue, as he was able to modulate the amount of chi enhancing his muscles to the point where he could punch nails into walls without bending them or breaking the surface, but his mind kept trying to drift elswhere, like for example, how Akane had looked that first day, when she'd walked in on him in the bath, and she'd been naked.

He shook his head violently, trying to push his opponent off with just his own strength in spite of the leverage advantage, and failed again. While trying to remember exactly what kind of hold he was in, so he could use the counter to it, abruptly an image of Shampoo, in the nude and smiling at him as though he knew what to do, burst in upon his awareness and he could even almost feel her breasts pressing into his back.

"I'm not a pervert," He muttered, causing his opponent to look down on him strangely. "Not a pervert, Not a pervert, not a…" Now he could see Akane again, though this time it was actually Kiima wearing her body, crawling slowly and sensually towards him on the floor of the bathroom in China. "Not a pervert, not a pervert, not a pervert…"

Deciding that Ranma was playing some sort of psychological trick on him, Futaba went back to trying to make the older boy give up, and could even hear the ref starting to count him out as he'd been on the ground too long, when he felt something poke into his leg. He judiciously decided not to look down and find out what it was, and kept up the hold.

"Not a pervert, not a pervert," Shampoo glomped him, he ripped open Ukyo's breast bindings, he was in bed with Shampoo, she was grappling with Kodachi… He couldn't get the images to stop, which was strange, because usually things didn't get this far, as he'd be hit by someone or woken up with a bucket of cold water, far before it got this hard to think.

Abruptly, as he thought that, the stream of images stopped, and she felt much more able to think clearly. At the same moment, Futaba fell forward in shock, right into a set of rather ample breasts. "Wha…?" Ranma asked, as she felt a head laying on her chest. "You pervert!" she yelled, and suddenly one leg was raised, sending the Shimeru boy flipping end over end as he landed with a thump, off the mat.

"Ow…" the downed combatant muttered, trying to figure out what was happening, as he looked up into the lights on the gym ceiling. One moment, he had his opponent in a submission hold, and the ref was counting out the fall, and the next his opponent had suddenly become a rather cute red haired girl, the arm that the dark haired boy had been holding had suddenly gotten harder to hold, and he'd found himself with a face full of breast.

He violently tore his mind away from that rather pleasant sensation, knowing that changing here would be a very bad thing, and managed to turn himself over and look back onto the mat, where the redhead was looking around, confused, and sitting up. She was wearing the same clothes the pigtailed fighter had worn, a white tank-top and pair of boys gym shorts. "What the hell?" she asked, looking back at Futaba, and then up to the bleachers.

Just as the girl was about to say something else, Principal Kuno jumped down next to her and grabbed one arm. "Ranma Saotome is da winner of dis match! His opponent went and left da mat, so he loses!"

"Huh?" Futaba asked, and then realized that he was lying on the gym floor. Unfortunately, he had to admit the crazed Hawai'ian guy was right, but he was more worried about Ranma. He was pretty sure, by this point, that the boy he'd been fighting had turned into a girl, and beforehand he'd even been sexually excited, for some reason. Did this mean that there was another family like his, or did it mean he was contagious somehow?

He had, after all, just been through her first period, was there some other weird thing about that, different from the hormones that made any guy go nuts, that passed on the change?

Of course, the weirdest part of all this was how Principal Kuno had reacted, or, actually, not reacted, to the change, and after he let Ranma's arm down, she walked over to Futaba, not seeming at all worried about the change after the first astonished exclamation.

"Hey, you okay?" the redhead asked, looking down at the dark-haired boy who was still lying on the floor. "Sorry 'bout that last shot, but I really wasn't expectin' ta change right there." For a moment she let a worried look dominate her face, before shaking it off. "I didn't kick ya too hard, did I?"

"Um, no, I'm fine," Futaba lied, his stomach actually feeling somewhat like he'd been kicked by a horse, as he took Ranma's hand to stand up. For the moment, he decided, if she didn't want to freak out, he'd take it as a good thing and go ask his father what the heck was going on.

"Glad you're not goin'' nuts about the curse," the pigtailed martial artist said, further confusing the Shimeru. "It gets kinda old for people to freak out 'n' point."

"You mean like them?" Futaba asked, pointing over Ranma's shoulder. She turned to see the majority of the Komatain students who had come to watch the matches gaping.

"Yeah, about like that," she sighed. "I'm gunna get outta here before someone decides ta try and grope me."

Futaba just shrugged, unsure of what to do or say, as a blue-black–haired girl walked up to the mat, looking at Ranma oddly. "Come on, we'll talk on the way home," she said, and by the way she'd said it, there was to be no argument.

"Yeesh, Akane, this ain't my fault!" Ranma complained, as the two headed for the entrance to the gym, and Futaba turned to head back to join his team, questions whirling around in his head that he had no idea how to answer.

HR.

Note: Okay, I know I'm supposed to update other things that, y'know, I was already writing, but it's seriously getting kinda hard to get myself interested in writing anything, so when something comes up, I write it. I was really tempted to publish this straight out, but I figure testing it here first would be a good idea.

Please tell me what you think of it. and to address a couple issues now, No, Ranma's not that weak, it's just hard to think clearly with what was happening to him, and yes, that will be explained.


	15. Old AoL

Angel Of Light

By: weebee

Okay, everyone, Protip. Don't rewrite. At least, don't do it unless you've got a stronger will than I do. The rewrite is dead in the water due to a massive chapter change in 16, formerly 24. Combined with the fact that there is a far better version of this fic over at Jonabee, AOL is now dead. Officially. Sorry to anyone who wanted to see it continued. I'm pulling the revised version off the site, but I've pasted it in place of the first 23 chapters of the old version, here, since I'm sure if I take the story right down, I'll get LOTS of PMs asking where it is.

Thank you, and I'm sorry about , I've got no other stories on this account that corespond to Jonabee fics, so this shouldn't hapen again.. unless it does. I've got the spine of Shinji Ikari sometimes.

Angel Attack! sort of

Angel of light. By Weebee.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or Neon genesis Evangelion. They belong to various companies who are not me.

Summary: Ranma somehow blunders into Tokyo 3 a few weeks before Shinji arrives, however this isn't a normal Ranma. Seems like he's generating a faint blue pattern, and can pilot Evangelion unit 01.

Author's Ramble: Hello. Some of you may recognize this fic as one I wrote a long time ago. This is, in fact, a rewrite of that one with an eye towards readability and better character development in earlier chapters. The first little bit is very similar to the same segments in the other fic, but expect serious divergence around Chapter 6 or so.

Please note that the original story will stay online until this one is finished, though I am worried about FFN nabbing me for double posting, so chapters of the other fic will be deleted as their counterparts are posted to this one.

Chapter 1. ANGEL ATTACK! …or not.

Ranma walked down the hall, looking at her own reflection in the mirrored steel surface of one of the doors. A fourteen year old girl stared back and a gun toting guard could be seen standing behind her. 'Now, how did I get myself into THIS mess?' she thought, frowning at her own image.

/Flashback/

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi sat in front of a terminal in the NERV command centre, studying readouts. Unit 00 had gone rogue only a week before, and she knew that SOMEONE was going to blame her and her team eventually. Government and military officials were just like that, attempting to pass the blame to anyone they possibly could, so long as it wasn't them.

Recalibrating a camera and heat sensor cluster on the outer edge of the City, she noticed an odd reading from one of the MAGI, popping up next to the image. Pulling the display with the reading to the centre of the screen, Ritsuko gasped and hit the alarms.

HR.

Gendo Ikari sat in his office, his hands steepled in front of his face and looking over a piece of paper. Shaking his head, he reached out to pick up the paper… when the base's alarms went off, followed by a voice over the intercom. "Blue pattern detected. I repeat. Blue pattern detected!"

Gendo cursed, standing from his chair. It had to be a false alarm. The first angel wasn't supposed to attack for another two weeks. Shinji wasn't even here to pilot Unit 01 yet and Rei's synchronization with Unit 00 was so intermittant that the machine wasn't likely to be able to function, or worse, it would go berserk.

Running out the door to his office, he left the papers sitting on the desk. Unknown to Gendo, the second from the top was a warning from SEELE…

HR.

"What the hell is going on!" Captain Misato Katsuragi barked as she ran into Central Dogma.

The technicians manning various stations looked panicked as they studied the readouts on their computer screens, for the first time in what appeared to be a real combat situation. "Unknown, Ma'am," Maya Ibuki reported, looking over her shoulder at the purple haired woman. "The MAGI are picking up an AT field within the city, but visual sensors show nothing. Continuing to scan."

Misato frowned. "An angel? How the hell'd we miss it until now? We don't have either of the EVA units ready for it yet, even if we had the pilots for them."

Just then, Gendo walked into the room, coolly asking Ritsuko for a status report. As the blonde rapidly filled in the older man, Maya spoke up. "I think I've got a visual," she said, sounding hesitant.

"Well, let's see it!" Misato barked.

The large screen at the front of the room lit up, showing something that no one had expected to see. "That's an angel?" Misato asked, surprise clearly evident in her voice.

Ritsuko shrugged. "Well, he does seem to be emitting a blue pattern."

Gendo sighed. "Dr Akagi, please run a diagnostic on the MAGI's sensor system… and try not to give us false alarms like this ag.."

Gendo was cut off by seeing the boy on the screen suddenly blur for a moment, and then be replaced by a girl.

"That was strange." Misato commented, quirking an eyebrow.

From his console near the front of the room, Hyuga spoke up. "So the angels are evil sex changing alien teenagers?" Any laughter the bespectacled man would have gained from his little joke was immediately quelled as he saw both Gendo and Misato giving him dirty looks, and he immediately turned back to his station, trying to pretend that he hadn't said anything.

Gendo stroked his chin and then spoke up. "I don't know if that is an angel, but send out a guard detail to detain it for questioning. I want to know why it's generating an AT field. Ritsuko, don't worry about checking your sensors."

Ritsuko nodded and Maya quirked an eyebrow. "It, sir?"

"What else do I call it?" Gendo asked, with no trace of humor in his voice.

HR.

On the streets of Tokyo 3, Ranma cursed the sky for picking right NOW to start raining. She had almost gotten indoors without a problem. Trying to shake some of the water out of her hair, she consoled herself with the fact that it was a lot easier to get lodging for the night if she looked like a poor, soaked young girl rather than a wandering martial artist. Of course, given the fact that she looked all of 14 years old at the moment, Ranma doubted that she could pass as a wandering martial artist in either form.

How was she to know that there was one of those aging mushrooms kicking around in the back of her pack? It was a good thing that it was a pretty long one, and it had only regressed her to a little over thirteen. Ever since that had happened about a year ago it had been kind of hard to get people to take her seriously in the martial arts, especially in her girl form.

As she wandered through the wet streets, Ranma wondered why the town she was in seemed so empty. She had only seen a few dozen people since she had entered the city limits and many of the buildings around her felt empty to her well honed senses.

When she rounded a corner, Ranma noticed several people in military uniforms walking towards her, with a woman with long dark purple hair leading the group.

"Hey!" She yelled, waving the group down. "Can you guys tell me where I am? I'm lookin for Tokyo…" She stopped as she saw the group turn and point guns at her. "Um… Hey. What'd I do?"

The woman, obviously the group's leader, stepped forward, making sure that the people behind her still had a clear firing arc to hit the girl and spoke. "Hello. I am Captain Misato Katsuragi of NERV. We've been ordered to take you in for questioning."

"Huh?" Ranma asked intelligently, looking rather confused. "So… you're arresting' me or somethin?"

Misato shrugged and dropped the formality. "Yeah…Pretty much."

Ranma sighed. "So, what'd I do?"

"Well, NERV's sensors picked up something… strange about you. We just wanted to take you in and make sure you aren't a threat."

Ranma snickered. 'Something strange, she says.' But kept her thoughts to herself. Throwing her hands up in the air in defeat, she walked over to the older woman. "All right. Cuff me or whatever."

Misato chuckled. "Don't worry. Just follow me."

/End Flashback/

And, here she was. That Misato lady had left her for some other guards to escort when they had gotten to the "Geofront," whatever that was, and she was apparently being shown to a holding cell. She had contemplated just cutting and running, however she had intended to stay in Japan for the next little while and didn't really want the military after her.

Ranma was brought out of her musing by one of her guards saying, "Here we are." in a rather cheerful voice while opening a door. She stepped inside and the guard closed the door, standing in front of it for further orders.

Ranma cast a look around the room she had entered. It was small, only about ten feet on a side, and contained a hard looking cot, a sink and a toilet. She figured that this was supposed to be her quarters for the time being. "I've slept in worse places, I guess." She muttered.

Throwing her pack, which the NERV personnel had searched but hadn't bothered to confiscate, onto the ground, she flopped onto the cot and closed her eyes, her hard day's travel making it easy to fall asleep and dream.

HR.

Ranma was standing in the Tendo Dojo's front yard, looking around for Akane. She had said that she was going to meet him here after school, however she was nowhere in sight.

'C'mon Akane." He thought, tapping his foot on the Dojo's side wall. That's when he heard it. It was a sort of rushing sound, kind of like the noise that he usually heard before one of Ryoga's perfect Shi Shi Hokodan blasts hit. Quickly looking around, he didn't see any lost boy launched projectiles and dismissed the sound as some random street noise… until the concussion wave hit.

Ranma's whole body was overwhelmed with an intense blast of pain as he flew backwards, slamming into and through the wall of the Dojo. The wave didn't stop there, either. His body slammed through every room in the house and was only stopped when it hit one of the main support beams, which were extra re-enforced due to the large martial artist count in the district.

The last thing Ranma saw before blackness claimed him was the ceiling of the Dojo falling towards him.

HR.

"AHHH!" Ranma screamed, bolting upright in the cot, her forehead beaded with sweat. "Just a dream… Just a dream." She whispered, trying to comfort herself and stop shivering.

HR.

Ritsuko cursed in frustration as she pounded a hand against her console. "Damn it, I don't understand!" She exclaimed, wishing that the data on her screen would just spontaneously combust.

"What is it, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, leaning over her shoulder.

"It's these readings." Ritsuko complained. "When that girl fell asleep she still registered as a blue pattern, but it was a lot fainter. The cameras just recorded her waking up, apparently from a nightmare, and the pattern's so strong that it's causing wide field interference."

"So?" Misato asked, not getting the point. "Is she an angel or what?"

Ritsuko put a hand to her head. "I don't know. I mean we've had false readings before, but I've never seen a human cause one. Human bio-readings are so different from those of the angels that the sensors would have to be really badly damaged to cause a reading like this for a human. The problem is that I've tried every sensor grid in the base and they ALL read her as a blue pattern."

"So just ask her." Misato said. "I mean, if she is an angel what harm could she do? There's no way something that small can do any real damage."

Ritsuko nodded and walked out of the room, dragging Misato behind her.

Gendo met up with the two women on their way to the holding cells. "You're going to talk to our guest?" He asked, looking questioningly at Ritsuko.

"Yes, sir." She responded. "Do you want to join us?"

Gendo nodded, falling in with them. After a few minutes of Ritsuko updating Gendo on what she had learned the three reached the door to the holding cell. At a gesture from Gendo the guard punched in a code at the door, causing it to slide open.

The girl inside the room flipped off of the bed and to her feet, causing Misato to reach for her gun and only stop when the girl put her hands behind her back.

"So, the boss's comin to interrogate me?" The girl asked, casually.

Gendo blinked, taken aback at how the girl had talked to him.

"Look. I don't know what Pop did to you twenty or thirty years ago, but I ain't takin the fall for it." Ranma said, in a way that made it clear that she had had LOTS of people come after her for what her father had done.

"Um, Miss. Your father didn't do anything to us." Ritsuko interjected, saving Ranma from the truly brilliant remark that Misato may have made.

"Oh, all right." The girl said, relaxing. "So, what do you want?"

Gendo spoke up. "Do you know what an angel is?"

Ranma thought for a few moments. "Isn't that the Christian messenger of god or something?" she finally said.

"Well, not exactly." Ritsuko interrupted. "Angels are something... else. NERV was founded to fight them and you seem to be one."

Ranma blinked. "So… you wanna fight me? Like in a sparring match or something?"

Misato and Ritsuko face faulted, Gendo keeping calm, as always.

A few minutes later, after several more interesting exchanges, Ranma had finally gotten the point. "So you guys're supposed to fight some kinda aliens that caused second impact?"

Gendo nodded.

"Where do I sign up?" Ranma asked, looking straight into Gendo's eyes.

The older man actually let a small amount of his surprise show at this comment. "Excuse me?"

"Look. Second impact killed my whole Family. Remember the Nerima fault line incident?"

The Nerima fault line incident was one of the first disasters of second impact to effect Japan, and in fact was one of the reasons that Tokyo 3 had been built the way it had. A fault had opened along the edge of Nerima ward, due to the tremendous shock to the planet of the Angel, ADAM's detonation. After things had settled down the fault had closed back up and sent out a concussion wave large enough to flatten the entire area. Then Gendo's eyes narrowed a bit as he connected some of the dots. "That happened fourteen years ago. How could you have lost your family in it?"

"That's a long story." Ranma responded, "Let's just say I'm about 18 years older than I look."

Ritsuko spoke up next. "So, if you're not an angel, how did you change like that?"

Ranma looked nervous. "Um… change?" She asked, desperately hoping that they didn't mean what she thought they did.

"Well, When we first picked up your AT field and focused our Cameras on you, you were a guy." Misato answered, looking quizzically at the short, red haired girl in front of her.

"Oh… That." Ranma said, her heart sinking.

Fifteen minutes, a lot of water, and six demonstrations of the curse later, Ranma stood in front of the three officers in male form.

"That's amazing!" Ritsuko exclaimed while studying Ranma from top to bottom. "But where does the extra mass come from?" she murmured, seeming to drift off into a distracted haze as she pondered the problem.

"So, which are you?" Misato interjected, curiously.

"I'm a guy!" Ranma responded, reflexively. Seeing the older woman flinch back he scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. "Sorry, it's just that everyone asks me that one."

HR.

Later, after the questioning of Ranma had been completed for the moment, Misato stood before the desk in Gendo's office, looking at him in shock. "So you want me to put him up?"

Gendo nodded. "Correct. He could be useful to us. Regardless of if he isn't mentally fourteen years old," The commander of NERV shook his head as to indicate that he thought that unlikely, "he is still physically about 14. We may be lucky and he'll be able to pilot one of the EVA units."

Misato's jaw dropped. "You're going to put a possible angel in the entry plug of an EVA?"

"We're going to make sure that he is human before we try to put him in an EVA. But if he is human, the possibilities and potential of a human with an AT field to compliment the EVA's own far outweigh the risks involved." Of course, what Gendo wasn't going to tell Misato was that Rei Ayanami also emitted a blue pattern and he had had to order Ritsuko to program the MAGI to filter her out. The Chief operations officer didn't need to know that.

Misato reluctantly nodded. Even without any real EVA combat data she could tell that extra power was always a good thing. "Alright, But why does he have to stay with me?"

"Lt Ibuki's apartment is too small, Dr Akagi spends the majority of her time within NERV, and as I recall, you volunteered to house the second child when she arrives from Germany in a few months."

"Speaking of which, which child is this one, anyways?" Misato asked, mentally wincing. It was true that she had, in fact, volunteered to take care of the second child when she arrived, but that was going to be a long time after she moved in to the place herself, not a week after, and she'd dealt with Asuka before

"Assuming successful activation with an EVA, he will be designated the third child since the second has already gone through sync tests and Shinji hasn't arrived yet. You're dismissed. Go retrieve your new charge." Gendo ordered.

Misato nodded sharply and left the room, grumbling about superior officers under her breath.

END.

So, there's the first new chapter. I hope you find it much more readable than the original, or if you're new, that you just enjoyed it. Please, tell me what you think.

Also, new chapters should be posted for this story every few days, as the primary issue is rewriting, rather than writing from scratch.

The Katsuragi institute

Okay, some people compared this story to the Rebuild series. I'd more readily compare it to the EVA Remaster released a few years ago, though it'll be a little more extensive than that. I'm adding and changing scenes, even altering pretty major plot elements, but the changes won't be nearly as dramatic as Rebuild.

Anyhow, enjoy Chapter 2, please.

Chapter 2. "Welcome to the Katsuragi institute for the mentally unbalanced."

Ranma looked at the woman in front of him, confused. "So, I'm supposed to come and live with you?"

Misato nodded. "Yes. Commander Ikari says that he wants to keep an eye on you and to do that you need to stay close by." She explained, before pausing, looking embarrassed. "And, erm, what was your name again?" She finally asked, wishing she'd paid more attention when Ritsuko had been questioning the boy earlier.

"Um… I'm Ranma Saotome." He said, bemusedly.

"Well Ranma. We had better get home and get you settled in. I got off shift about an hour ago and I'm getting hungry." Misato said, cheerfully.

Ranma's stomach growled in agreement as he picked up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. "Hey, Misato?"

"Yeah?" The purple haired woman responded, while opening the door to the cell where Ranma had been held for the past few hours.

"Do you have any pets?"

"Pets?" Misato asked, looking at the young boy strangely.

"Well… yeah. I've got this problem with Cats. I'm…um… allergic to them." Ranma said, not wanting Misato to know that he was afraid of Felines. He had been trying to overcome his fear of the creatures for a long time now, but about the only progress he'd made was an ability to say the word without stuttering.

"Oh, no, don't have a cat. I've got a penguin, though." Misato said, thinking that it was probably a good thing that this kid hadn't gone to live with Ritsuko. Even though she didn't own one, she had Cat sat for so many people over the years that her apartment was full of fur.

"A Penguin?" Ranma asked, with a tinge of laughter in his voice.

"Yeah. He's a warm water penguin." Misato said, proudly. "He's very intelligent, as well."

Ranma just dropped the subject. So Misato had a few quirks. What else was new?

HR.

About twenty minutes later, Ranma found out what else was new. When he'd been getting into Misato's small blue sports car, his stomach had growled and he'd made the statement, rather ill-advised now that he thought of it, that he hoped they would get to Misato's place quickly.

The wicked grin the woman had immediately sported had been the first warning sign that he'd said something wrong, and the fact that she'd screeched out of the NERV parking garage the second he'd closed the passenger door was the second. Now, they were taking another turn at break neck speed and Ranma's knuckles were frozen around the passenger side door Handle.

"Um, Misato?" He asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Yes Ranma?" Misato asked pleasantly, as if they were out on a Sunday drive.

"Can we slow down a bit?" Ranma asked, gulping as the car just missed a rather large telephone pole.

"Why?" Misato replied. "I thought you wanted to get home fast?"

Ranma just gulped again and closed his eyes, waiting for the ride to be over.

When the death trap…er, I mean car had come to a stop Misato climbed out and reached into the back to grab Ranma's pack. Trying to sling it over her shoulder as he had done, she almost dislocated the joint. "What's in this thing? Rocks?" She muttered, as Ranma walked over and took it from her.

"Yep. And a barbell or two, My tent, all my clothes and some other stuff." Ranma responded, putting the pack on his back as if it weighed nothing.

Misato pondered being stunned at this development, then remembered what else had happened so far tonight, dismissed the incredibly heavy pack as yet another oddity, and started walking towards the front door of her apartment building.

HR.

When Ranma and Misato entered Misato's apartment, Ranma looked around in as close to horror as he could get without cats around. The place was a mess! And this was even by his, somewhat low, standards. There were beer cans scattered all over the floor, as well as dozens of instant Ramen containers. It turned out that Misato hadn't been lying, as there appeared to be a passed out black and white bird on top of one of the hills of cans.

"This place is… nice." Ranma said, trying to be diplomatic as he shoved a pile of old newspapers out of the way.

Misato saw how he was looking around the room and broke in. "Look. I didn't have any warning that you were moving in here, Okay? I thought I'd have a while to clean the place up and pack all of my stuff before anyone moved in."

Ranma shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

Misato nodded. "Your room's down the hall there." She said, pointing to a door, the first in a set of three that were arranged along a hallway that lead off from the main room.

"Thanks." Ranma said, as he walked to the room, opened the door and tossed his pack inside. "Now, let's get something to eat."

Misato grinned in whole hearted agreement before slogging her way through the mess in her living room to the kitchen. As Ranma walked into his room to set his meager belongings in place, she got to work on one of her usual dinners.

HR.

Noticing that there was a bed in the room, Ranma didn't bother to unpack his sleeping bag. Throwing his clothes into random drawers, he carefully set the few other belongings he had up along the top of the dresser. He truthfully didn't have much. His collection of martial arts scrolls, a picture of his family, including the Tendos and the Fiancées, and a set of barbells he had found in the remains of Akane's room when the Dojo had fallen. The barbells weren't really useful as training aids, but he'd always kept them as a reminder of the Dojo and the people in it.

He walked out of the bedroom when he smelled cooked food, only to see Misato sitting at the kitchen table with two steaming bowls of noodles. Sliding up to the table next to her, Ranma took a spoon full of noodles and then attacked them like a starving man.

Now, despite her protests, subconsciously, Misato knew that other people didn't much like her style of cooking, though she couldn't imagine why, so this surprised her. "You like it?" She asked, slowly eating her own meal.

Ranma gulped down another spoonful of noodles before he responded. "Believe me, I've had a lot worse. There was this girl I knew who could cook so bad that it knocked you out."

"Really?" Misato asked, looking curious. "Who was she?"

"Oh. Akane. She was my Fiancée." Ranma said, offhandedly.

"You're a little young for that, aren't you?" Misato asked, her eyes wide.

"Remember what I said? I only look fourteen. Besides, Me 'n Akane were an arranged marriage." Ranma said.

Misato took a second to digest that before speaking up. "So, where is this "Akane" person?"

Ranma became downcast for a moment. "She got caught in the Nerima incident… she died."

Misato, reminded far too much of her own father's death, decided to change the subject. "You do know that you're going to school, right?"

Ranma briefly choked on a spoonful of his food. "What?"

"Well, it's part of the deal of being here. You have to go to school. Of course, for a guy who already went through it, it should be easy."

Ranma groaned and asked, "Can ya at least write a note to exclude me from Gym and stuff?"

Misato raised an eyebrow. "From that pack you carry around, I thought you would be a health nut."

Ranma looked embarrassed for a moment. "Well, I am. I'm a martial artist. It's just that with my curse, locker rooms and stuff are a bit embarrassing."

Misato looked confused. "Curse?"

Ranma grabbed a glass of water that was on the table and tipped it over his head. "Curse." She stated, evenly.

"Oh, Right…" Misato said, trying to remind herself that if she let something like this disturb her, she would never be able to deal with the angels. "I'll see what I can do."

After finishing up the last of her dinner, Ranma walked over to the sink and splashed herself with hot water, turning back to normal. "Well, I'm gunna go see if I can find somewhere to practice."

Misato looked on in interest, watching the curse take effect before Ranma's comment registered. "Practice?" She asked, unsure.

"Yeah. Martial arts. I got this idea for a new attack a few days ago and I wanna try it out. Hey, does this place have a flat roof?"

Misato thought for a moment. "Yeah… but the entrance is usually locked. I can get the manager to unlock it for you in the morning if you want."

Ranma shook his head as he headed for the patio doors. Opening them, he said. "Don't worry. I'll get up there myself." Before flipping up and out of Misato's view.

The purple haired woman's face went pale as she darted towards the door. "You idiot! This is the fourth floor!" If her first charge ended up as street Pizza she'd never hear the end of it from Ritsuko. Poking her head over the railing, fearful of what she would find, Misato saw nothing on the floors or street below her. "Huh?" She mumbled, before looking up.

"Hi." Ranma said, perching on the edge of the roof. "Sorry. I keep forgetting that most people aren't used to seeing stuff like this."

Misato just walked back to the table, slumping down in defeat. "The angels can't be weirder than this," she said, hopefully.

HR.

Ranma stood on the roof of the building, concentrating his energy. He had seen a trick recently in which an old martial artist had made his Chi into a barrier and stopped many of Ranma's attacks, and he was curious as to weather he could pull it off. It was very different from anything he'd tried in Nerima, and he hadn't had much chance to test out his Chi capabilities since then, especially with the rather low number of Chi using martial artists he'd encountered in the post-second impact world.

After running through a few warm-up kata to calm himself down from his rather stressful day of being held at gunpoint, Ranma decided to get started.

Closing his eyes, he tried to envision his Chi forming a shield in front of him, and it happened. Opening his eyes, he saw a shimmering group of blue hexagons, each nested within the one larger than it, floating just in front of his body. He wasn't even really expending all that much energy to keep them there.

'Strange…' he thought, 'That guy's shield didn't look anything like this.' Shrugging it off, Ranma decided that he'd have to find someone to help him test the barrier later.

Jumping back down to Misato's fortunately unlocked patio, Ranma saw the aforementioned woman passed out on her own couch with a can of beer next to her. Smirking a little at the sight, Ranma decided to go to bed. He wasn't particularly tired however staying up all night and doing Kata would not be a good idea if he was going to school the next morning.

As he went into his room and slid under the covers, Ranma wondered what the next day would bring.

HR.

"WAKE UP!" Ranma jumped about a foot at the shout and whipped around in a defensive stance to see a rather startled Misato.

"I've been calling you for the last ten minutes. You're a pretty heavy sleeper." The woman said, finding the speed at which her house guest had moved from full restfulness to combat ready just a little disconcerting.

Ranma dropped his defensive stance and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Sorry about that. At least you didn't use a bucket of water or something."

Misato grinned. "Thanks for the idea."

Ranma slapped a hand to his head, wishing that he had kept his thoughts to himself.

"Anyways…" Misato said, "breakfast's ready. Then you really have to get going."

Nodding, Ranma jumped off of his bed and walked over to his dresser. Throwing a pointed glance at Misato, he opened a drawer.

Misato realized what he was hinting at and quickly backed out of the room.

After getting dressed and eating another Misato cooked meal, Ranma was walking out the door when Misato stopped him. "Ranma?"

He turned around. "Yeah?"

Misato tossed him a small black rectangular box, a card and a folder with "Classified" on one side and "Welcome to NERV" on the other. "Read this when you have some time. It's the NERV introduction. That card's your ID, and the phone's in case I need to contact you for any reason. Don't lose them."

Ranma nodded, slipping the folder into his pack and putting the card and phone into his pocket.

HR.

As Ranma walked down the streets, cursing his stupidity, he wondered for the fourth time why he hadn't asked Misato for directions. Withdrawing the cell phone from his pocket, he wondered if he could call her and ask, though as he squinted down at all of the tiny buttons he shook his head, completely unsure of what any of them save the standard number pad and 'talk' button did.

Deciding to do things the much easier way, he hopped onto a wall and from there to the roof of a small house. As he looked around from his new vantage point, he caught sight of a girl in a school uniform a few blocks away. Hopping off of the wall, he quickly headed for the girl.

"Excuse me?" Ranma yelled, catching up to the girl who was walking in front of him.

She turned around, revealing a pale face, with Red eyes and pale blue hair. "Yes?" She asked, in a cold and un-emotional voice.

Ranma took note of the girl's rather odd appearance and dismissed it. After all, he'd seen odder. "I'm looking for the school. Can I walk with you?" He asked, just hoping that the girl's school uniform was from the same school that he was supposed to go to.

She actually seemed to take several seconds to ponder this before nodding. "Yes."

"So, what's your name?" Ranma asked, looking at the girl who was walking next to him and noticing that, though she hid it well and there weren't any visible marks on her, the way she walked indicated that she'd been hurt recently.

"I am Rei Ayanami." The girl responded, looking Ranma up and down. "You are the Angel that NERV detected."

Ranma looked embarrassed for a moment. "I like being called Ranma better, please. Besides. I ain't an Angel. I dunno what those guys at NERV are thinking."

The rest of the trip to school was spent in what was for Ranma, uncomfortable silence while Rei was cataloguing this new commodity in her life and was fully occupied.

HR.

Ranma broke the silence as the two approached the school. "So… um… how did you get hurt?" He asked.

"I was injured during an attempt to activate Unit 01," Rei responded, flatly.

As Ranma was going to ask more, the two were quickly surrounded with a mob of students. Figuring that the word CLASSIFIED on the NERV booklet meant that most people around here didn't know much about the local military, Ranma decided to keep silent.

The pigtailed boy quickly proceeded to the office, giving his age as 14 to keep from causing confusion. After all, the ID that Misato had given him stated that as his age. He was assigned to a class and told to give a note to the class representative, Hikari Horaki.

Walking into the crowded class room, Ranma saw a girl standing at the front next to the teacher's desk. "Excuse me?" He asked, walking up to her.

"Yes? The girl asked, looking at Ranma and noticing that he didn't have a school uniform.

"I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm supposed to be starting in this class. The office gave me a note to give you." He handed her the note.

"Thank you, Saotome-san." The girl said, reading over the note. "I'll give this to the teacher later, you can sit down."

Ranma nodded, and then began to look around the class for a seat, seeing one between two boys. One of them had brown hair and glasses, and looked somewhat like a nerd while the other had black hair, swept back away from his face.

Slumping down in his seat, Ranma waited for the class to begin and for him to have to introduce himself.

Five minutes later, Ranma was standing up in front of the class and scratching his head self-consciously. "I'm Ranma Saotome, of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. I just came back from a training trip around Asia and most of what's left of Europe." Quickly taking his seat, he proceeded to sleep through the first half of the day.

END.

In retrospect, Chapter 2 cuts off kinda abruptly, huh? Oh well, given the update rate, the abrupt ending won't be here long.

Dissonance

Chapter 3. Dissonance.

Ranma woke to the sound of a ringing lunch bell. He had done this many times before, but he thought that he had left that behind many years ago. Groaning, he picked his pack up off of the floor and put it onto his back... knocking a brown haired boy with glasses onto the ground.

"Oh, sorry." The martial artist said, offering the boy a hand up.

The boy accepted the hand, pulling himself to his feet. "That's all right. Hey, is that an old U.S. Military infantryman's pack?"

Ranma stared at the boy as if he had lost his mind. 'I just knocked him silly and he's asking me what kind of pack I did it with?' He thought, before responding. "Um... I think so, why?"

As the brown haired boy was about to answer, another person spoke up from the door. "Don't mind Kensuke. He's a bit of a military buff."

Turning, Ranma saw the boy who had been sitting on the other side of him during class leaning against the doorway. "No problem. It was just a weird question, that's all. Actually, I started carrying this thing when the weights I carry around started ripping the bottoms out of normal backpacks." He explained.

The black hared boy shrugged, as the brown hared one, who Ranma had figured out must be Kensuke, studied Ranma's backpack with a strange gleam in his eyes. Pulling the file folder out of the pack, he grinned wildly. "You work for NERV?"

Ranma quickly grabbed the folder out of Kensuke's hands, stuffing it back into the pack. 'Damn. There goes that secret.' He thought, cursing his own stupidity. he shook his head. "They said something about me being an "Angel" or something... They wanna keep an eye on me."

The black haired boy studied him intently. "Where are the wings?"

Ranma blinked. "Huh?"

"Well, if you're an angel..."

Ranma sighed in exasperation. "I don't think they meant it literally." He said, looking at the boy levelly.

Kensuke shrugged. "Touji's always been a bit strange on stuff like that. He takes expressions and stuff way too seriously. Touji, it's probably just some sort of code word or something. You know, like the military always used in those cheesy old Godzilla movies."

Just as Kensuke had finished his last statement, a girl who Ranma recognized as the class rep walked up. "Excuse me, Saotome san?" She asked, looking him over critically.

"Yeah?" Ranma asked, wondering what was wrong with him.

"I'd suggest that you get yourself a uniform for the school some time in the future." The girl said, sparing an irritated glance for Touji's track suit, before pulling out a paper. "You can get them down in the shopping district."

Ranma began to sweat. "Um... I don't think I can wear a uniform for... medical reasons." He lied, knowing that it wasn't a very convincing one. Truthfully, he never wore school uniforms because they, like most clothing that wasn't easily adjustable, had an annoying tendency to get in the way when he became a girl, but he wasn't eager to tell the class rep that.

"And why not?" She asked, stepping closer to Ranma with a scowl on her face.

Ranma began to back off, looking nervous, and ended up bumping into a counter in the back of the room, the light impact causing a conveniently placed glass of water to fall off, splashing all over the leg of his pants, and inevitably triggering his Jusenkyo curse.

"Is this a good enough reason?" Ranma said weakly, grateful that the classroom had emptied out for the lunch period, and the small group were the only people left in the room.

Hikari stared at the red haired girl who'd suddenly appeared before her in shock. "H... how?" she gasped, her eyes glazing over slightly, as if she wanted to faint.

"Look. It's a long story, 'n I don't really have the time to explain right now." Ranma said, quickly, trying to hold the brown haired girl's attention so that she didn't actually faint. "I'm tryin to keep it a secret since it tends to freak people out, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone." After finishing this statement, Ranma turned around to see that the counter the glass was resting on also had a sink, with hot and cold water. After use of its facilities, he stood in front of Hikari, who was still gaping. Fortunately, her eyes had become much less glassy with the return of her new classmate's normal form.

After shaking herself out of her surprised state, Hikari giggled a little nervously and said, "I see why you would say it freaks people out." She frowned, looking up and down the martial artist's red chinese shirt and black draw string pants.

"Given your... condition," She started, deciding that, for the sake of her nerves, she would treat it as any other health issue, "It would be fine if you just obtained one of those shirts in white, or bought a white dress shirt and wore a darker undershirt."

"Thanks, I guess," Ranma nodded, mildly impressed that the girl had actually tried offering alternatives, rather than sticking to the rules and cursing him out or just giving up.

"Not a problem," The class rep said, before turning and walking away, trying to stabilize her rather badly shaken world view.

Kensuke exploded into a rapid fire slew of questions after that. "Ranma, that was so cool! I've never seen that look on Hikari's face before! So, is that thing you just did why NERV is observing you?" He started, and then led into a number of other questions. A couple of them made Ranma's eyebrow twitch, so he decided to ignore the brown haired boy in favor of the black haired one standing next to him.

Turning to Touji, who was strangely silent, Ranma noticed an odd grin on his face. Walking up to him and snapping his fingers under his nose, all Ranma got was a muttered "Angel..." in return.

Giving up on both of the other students as lost causes, the cursed boy walked out of the class room in search of a good place to eat his lunch, ignoring Kensuke's shouted questions.

HR.

Walking down the street leading to Misato's home after school, Ranma cursed her own foul luck. The sprinklers in front of that one house just HAD to be on, didn't they? Shrugging it off, she walked into the lobby of the building to see Misato walking out. "Hey Misato," She said cheerfully as she walked towards the door.

Misato's eye twitched as she called Ranma over. When the redhead got closer, the older woman demanded, "Why the heck didn't you answer your cell phone?"

"Huh? Ranma asked, blinking and taking the device out of her pocket. She tapped the buttons on the front of it curiously, and as Misato's eyebrow twitched, she took it from the young teen.

"This thing isn't even on," She noted, sighing in exasperation.

"Well, um, ya didn't exactly tell me how to use it," Ranma observed, scratching the back of her head.

NERV's strategic operations officer was about to ask who in the world couldn't work a simple mobile phone, but caught herself. "I'll teach you how it works later," she said, exasperated. "I've been trying to contact you for the past hour."

"Something wrong?" The pigtailed martial artist asked, concerned.

"Ritsuko called, she wants to see both of us at headquarters to run a few tests, and I'm running late for an activation test Rei's got on Unit 00." Misato explained, hurriedly, glancing down to her watch.

Ranma ran her mind through the set of NERV documents that she'd read over during her lunch, recalling that "Unit 00" was some sort of giant robot and Rei was its pilot. She had seen a lot of Giant Mecha Anime, but the real thing would be a lot more interesting, and she was sort of curious to see what Rei, and possibly herself, soon, actually did for a living. "Oh, ya think I could watch Rei's test?"

Misato smiled. "Sure, so long as Ritsuko doesn't keep you running around in a hamster wheel too long." When Ranma gulped, the older woman smiled. "Don't worry, it won't be that bad, just a few simple tests and then a full physical in both forms."

The redhead sighed and nodded. She had had many physical exams in her life, and those for her girl form truly sucked, however they were needed from time to time and now was as good a time to get one out of the way as ever. Then she caught the other half of the statement. "Um... you still haven't told me what other tests you're going to run." She said, eyes narrowing.

"They're just a few tests relating to what we told you about yesterday, about the angels." Misato explained, not entirely truthfully.

Nodding, Ranma turned and walked with Misato as the two approached the parking garage. When her brain finally made the connection between Misato and the garage, it was far too late.

"Hey..." Ranma said apprehensively. "We're driving?"

"Well, we certainly aren't going to walk all the way down to the geofront," The Katsuragi woman rolled her eyes, producing a set of keys from her pocket.

Ranma shook her head rapidly, and Misato smirked.

HR.

After a ten minute drive, where Ranma was constantly on edge, waiting for Misato to bring her foot down to the metal and completely failing to enjoy the beautiful day outside, Misato's car entered a tunnel leading to the Geofront. Looking around the massive underground city, Ranma's mouth dropped open. The first time she had been taken to NERV HQ it had been in the back of a military transport and she had come back out at night. Now she was seeing the Geofront in direct simulated daylight, and it looked impressive.

She was jerked out of her observations of the beauty of the Geofront by the car coming to a stop in Central Dogma's parking area.

Immediately after entering the building, Ranma had taken a quick detour to a bathroom to get some hot water, before the two of them showed up at DR. Akagi's office. Dumping Ranma off there Misato walked down the hall leading to the EVA Cages, trying to look like she wasn't nervously studying the sign posts to keep from getting lost.

HR.

Inside Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's office, Ranma looked nervously around the room, taking in the several ceramic cat shaped charms on the desk with a small shiver.

"Are you all right, Ranma?" The doctor asked, placing a report that she'd been reading when he'd entered down on the table.

"Yeah." The pigtailed martial artist said, shaking off the small amount of nervousness about the figures. It wasn't as if they were real cats, after all.

"Please have a seat, and we'll get started." Ritsuko said, in a businesslike voice, motioning to a chair across her desk from where she was sitting.

Ranma quickly sat, and the older woman began asking him questions about his life and health. A few of his answers, most particularly regarding his background, made her raise her eyebrow but she quickly moved on. This session went on for about forty five minutes, before Ritsuko lead Ranma out of her office and to the facility's Gym.

HR.

About an hour later, Ritsuko Akagi was wondering if someone had recalibrated the Gym equipment on her. Almost all of the tests she'd run had come back with results in the upper range for pro athletes, and the rest had topped that mark. Asking Ranma to switch forms hadn't altered the results any.

"Am I done?" The pigtailed boy asked, from his station on a treadmill next to the scientist.

"Hmm? ...Yes… you can stop now." She said, distractedly, as she made a few more notes to input into her computer. So far, she had found a human being in perfect physical health that could apparently change gender. It was definitely the strangest thing she had ever heard of, but there was no evidence that Ranma was an angel. There was only one more test left, and it would also help with Gendo's rather insane idea of making the boy an EVA pilot if he checked out. "There's only one more test left." She said, leading Ranma out of the room.

HR.

"All right Ranma." Ritsuko said, standing next to a large cylindrical device. "Please step into this Entry Plug Simulator and clip the contacts into your hair."

Ranma looked at the strange looking device dubiously, before looking down at the black latex wetsuit the woman had asked him to put on, for some reason, and fiddling with a small electronic looking box on one wrist. He wanted to get clarification on exactly what kind of test this was, however it was apparently the final one, so he stepped in, sitting on a strange bench like seat that was mounted at the back and clipped two small rectangular devices that the doctor had given him earlier into place on his head. Ritsuko closed the hatch that Ranma had entered through, and then a screen lit up in front of him with her smiling face on it.

"All right Ranma." Ritsuko said cheerfully. "Now the chamber you're in is about to be filled with something called LCL. It's perfectly harmless and you can breathe it. It's oxygen rich. Just stay calm and breathe normally."

Ranma looked a little worried at the thought that they were going to be pumping some sort of gas into the chamber, and he was about to protest, just as a few vents opened up at the base of the chamber and flooded it with liquid.

"What the he..." Ranma started, before the LCL had covered his mouth and he began to gag. Coughing and trying to keep the liquid from getting into his lungs, he realized that something was wrong... or more accurately, that something WASN'T wrong. He could breath.

Calming down, Ranma glared indignantly at Ritsuko's image. "You coulda warned me." He said, angry that he had only had about five seconds warning.

Ritsuko smiled. "As I thought. The LCL doesn't trigger your curse." She said, inwardly amused. So far, the boy had shrugged off every test she'd given him, and seeing him actually react was, in some way, satisfying.

Ranma's eyes widened. She was right. The LCL was cold, yet he was still a guy... or not. She suddenly Realized that she had shifted forms while thinking about the LCL's temperature, barely able to notice, as the only evidence of the change that she felt was the suit on her body having to shift to conform to the new shape.

Ritsuko blinked. "Strange..." She muttered, scribbling something down on a clip board. "Ranma, can you do something for me?"

Ranma nodded and Ritsuko continued. "Could you think about your male form?"

Thinking about her male form, Ranma knew what to expect this time, and felt the slight shifting sensation as he became male again.

"Has your curse ever acted like that before?" Ritsuko asked, curious.

"Nah, this hasn't happened before." Ranma replied. "Though it'd be nice if I could control the curse all the time like this." He grinned.

Ritsuko pondered for a few moments, before shaking her head clear. "While the thought of investigating your curse's reaction to LCL is interesting, this test is meant to test your capability to synchronize with an Evangelion."

Ranma nodded, lying back in the strange liquid that surrounded him. Breathing it felt odd, as if someone was constantly dumping water down his throat, but he could still breathe.

As Ranma relaxed, the lighting around him changed from only the monitor to a subdued reddish light. He felt... something... but couldn't put his finger on it.

Ritsuko, on the other hand was looking at the screen in front of her with a combination of confusion and curiosity and seemed too engrossed in her readings to notice time passing.

"Ritsuko-san? Are you done yet?" Ranma asked, after about fifteen minutes had passed with no results.

Ritsuko looked up from her task and realized that Ranma was still inside of the Simulator. "What? …Oh, sorry Ranma. Yes, I'm done." Saying this, she entered a few commands that emptied the plug of LCL and caused the hatch to open. After giving Ranma directions to the showers and EVA test room, accepting her neural clips back, and handing Ranma his clothes she went back to studying her Data.

HR.

After Ranma had left the room, Ritsuko looked at the readings again. Yes, it was still there. The test simulator read Ranma as having a 70 percent base sync rate. Granted, with the differences in a real EVA, that rate was likely to drop to 50 or even 40 percent, if he could sync at all, but it was still startlingly high, especially for someone who claimed that he hadn't been born within nine months of second impact. She would have to inform Gendo of the results.

HR.

As Ranma walked into the Test cage, he saw Rei, in a skin tight white and blue rubberized suit which looked much like the one he'd been wearing previously, but with several harder, almost armored looking portions. For a moment, he caught himself staring at the readily revealed curves, before shaking his head to banish those thoughts.

"Um... Hi." He said, approaching the girl.

Rei nodded at him, adjusting a loose seal on her plug suit. As she finished up, Misato entered the room from the stairs that lead up to the observation area. "Hello Ranma." She said, looking the boy over. "So, Ritsuko didn't poke you to death, then?"

Ranma shook his head. "Nah, just some weird stuff with this tube full of water, or something." He said, before asking, "Did I miss the activation test?"

"Nope, you're just in time, and we're moving the EVA in now. We wanted to check Rei out to make sure she would be all right," Misato smiled.

"Oh, yeah," Ranma said, remembering how the girl had been moving at school, as though her joints were stiff and sore. "She all right?"

Misato was about to respond, preparing to reassure the pigtailed boy that the test would likely not be too stressful, and that Rei should make it through without a problem, when the girl herself spoke. "I am capable of performing the test."

Ranma blinked at her for a moment, before a loud rumble reverberated through the room, and the EVA was brought in, ready to be hooked up so that Rei could be loaded in. It was a huge machine, seemingly fragile but about a hundred and eighty feet tall. It was mostly colored orange with the rest mainly white, and it had one large eye in the middle of its head.

"Wow." The martial artist said, looking up at the monstrosity.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Misato proudly responded, also looking the EVA over.

Rei walked away, in order to get into the plug and be inserted into the Machine.

Ranma and Misato walked up to the Control and Observation room, Misato leading Ranma.

As Misato and Ritsuko supervised the preparations for activating Unit 00, Gendo stood at a thick glass window, staring at it. Ranma walked up beside him, watching the entry plug as it was inserted into the back of the machine.

Maya spoke up, from a console near the back of the room. "Plug inserted."

Ritsuko nodded, walking over to another console and sitting down. "Activating primary nerve link."

"Nerve link established."

"Activating secondary links."

Hyuga began relaying the status reports after this point, as Ritsuko and Maya were too busy typing. "Sync rate at 10, 12, sync rate has passed threshold. Sync rate at..." He trailed off as his console flared red. "Ma'am. The EVA is rejecting the Nerve links!"

Ritsuko cursed. "Damn! Not again..."

The Eva's head shot up, and the massive machine lunged forward, its fists impacting with incredible force against the walls to either side of the observation room, and even directly into the massive thickness of the window's reinforced glass.

"Cut the power!" Misato yelled, wondering how much longer the window could hold up against the punishment it was taking.

Ritsuko rapidly nodded, flipping up a guard panel near her position and pulling a large switch, which caused Unit 00's power cord to jettison with explosive force.

"Ma'am, no effect, Unit 00 has switched to internal power. Approximately one minute power remaining at current output!" Maya reported.

"Damn it," Ranma heard Gendo mutter, quietly enough that it was hard to hear over the alarms and shouts. Turning, he saw the older man locking two hard eyes with the Evangelion's one, seeming to stare it down, and with one hand clenched into a fist.

"Doctor! The EVA just ejected its entry plug and is powering down!" Aoba reported, as Ranma stood at the front of the room, his eyes widening as he tracked a tiny object that was bouncing off of the test room's walls.

As the plug ran out of fuel and fell many stories to the floor, many people were surprised to note that Ranma was the first out of the observation room. Gendo was the second, but he couldn't catch up to the speeding martial artist.

HR.

Ranma ran up to the entry plug, seeing a small emergency hatch near the plug's base, and tried to turn its handle. "Damn!" He hissed, as his hands began to sizzle from the contact with the hot metal. 'To hell with this,' he thought, bathing the appendages with as cold a battle aura as he could manage and beginning to turn the valve again, only stopping when a large amount of LCL splashed him in the face.

Blinking his eyes clear of the liquid and looking into the darkness beyond the hatch, he saw Rei tightly gripping two white handles that seemed to be placed on either side of her seat. He clambered into the narrow confines of the plug and reached Rei's side. After quickly checking her for injuries, he attempted to lift her out of the seat, but something stopped him. He looked down in confusion, only to see Rei weakly lift her hand and pull a small handle. It probably released some kind of restraints, he realized. Lifting the girl carefully in his arms, Ranma carried her to the hatch, where Gendo Ikari and a team of medical technicians were waiting.

"Thank you." Gendo said, his unreadable expression breaking for a second as he saw Ranma emerging from the plug with Rei.

HR.

Ranma picked at the bandages Dr. Akagi had insisted be wrapped around his hands as he looked at Misato on their drive home. "So, what happens now?" he asked, remembering the way the EVA had gone berserk.

Misato sighed. "I don't know. Gendo will probably try to use Unit 01, but the odds of a Pilot successfully syncing with that EVA are so small..." She left that sentence to trail off.

HR.

Ranma and Misato trudged into Misato's apartment, both tired from the day's events. Misato flopped down on the couch in the living room while Ranma headed for the bathroom. Tossing his clothes into a random corner, he stopped for a few seconds to unwrap his hands. He'd only gotten a few small burns from grasping the handle before cooling his hands with Chi in order to grab the hatch, so he quickly discarded the bandages before turning on the water in the bath tub and jumping in without looking.

Misato was jolted from her half asleep, half dead state on the couch by a girl's scream. Bolting upright, she ran down the hall to the bathroom to see Ranma, shivering and in girl form, clinging to the ceiling while Penpen sat in an ice cold bath, paddling back and forth.

"Warm water penguin, my ass!" The pigtailed girl yelped, glaring at the blissfully ignorant bird in the tub beneath her.

Misato just laughed. She needed some humor after a day like today.

END.

Rei and Ichi

Chapter 4. Rei and Ichi.

I sat in the hospital room looking at the ceiling and thinking about what had happened yesterday. It had been another failed synchronization and activation test with Unit 00, and Commander Ikari was rather angry about it. What stuck in my mind however, was the event that had happened after the test.

The EVA had rejected me and ejected my entry plug. During the ejection rocket firing, even my restraint system and the LCL were not enough to keep me from sustaining injuries, and I received several broken ribs, a broken left arm and dislocated shoulder.

I believe that I lost consciousness for a short period during the entry plug's flight, as I do not recall hitting the ground. My injuries were so severe that I could not leave my seat, and my vision was blurring too badly for me to operate the controls that would allow me to vent the LCL and open the escape hatch. I was not very certain of my survival. Of course, since I am one of many it would not really matter, however I would imagine that death would be… unpleasant.

I felt the Entry Plug stop rolling around on the ground, and then I heard a thumping on the outside as if someone was trying to open the hatch. The thumping stopped for a brief moment and I feared that the plug had been too badly damaged during its flight, however a moment later, the thumping resumed, the LCL began flooding out, and the hatch popped open, with the Angel… no, he had asked to be called Ranma… on the other side of it, a look of worry on his face. I have honestly never seen such a look on anyone's face before, at least not directed at me. The feelings it evoked in me were strange, and I still do not know how to describe them.

I see Commander Ikari is coming into the room now, no doubt to ask me what went wrong during the sync test. I am not sure if I can tell him.

HR.

Ranma walked out of Misato's bathroom, cursing penguins to high heaven. Shivering violently, she thought briefly of a recipe she knew for chicken and wondered if it would work on other birds.

Seeing Misato snickering at her from her place at the breakfast table, she glared right back. It had been about three days since the disastrous activation attempt of Unit 00, and Ranma was getting used to the routine of going to school again. True, she would rather avoid school as much as possible, but if it was all she had to do to get room and board, why not?

Of course while Dr. Akagi's constant examinations were getting old, Ranma could understand NERV's paranoia. If these angels were as dangerous as she had heard, she would be just as suspicious.

Snagging one of the very few clean cups from a cabinet, Ranma held it under the faucet and filled it with hot water. Dumping it over her head, he adjusted his clothing, swiped a couple breakfast bars for a quick snack and walked towards the door.

Misato stopped him before he could leave. "Ranma?"

He turned around, looking quizzical. "Yeah?"

"Commander Ikari wants you down at NERV this afternoon after class. Please come home as fast as possible."

"Any idea what for?" Ranma asked, causing the dark haired woman to look back at him and shrug her shoulders.

"I have no idea." Misato admitted, before taking a pull from the can of beer that sat next to her bowl.

Ranma thought for a moment and then decided that he'd find out what was going on later, running out the door and down the hall. He was late for class.

HR.

Ritsuko looked at Gendo as if he had lost his mind. "You want to do what?" She asked, almost shouting.

"I want you to perform an activation test using Mr. Saotome and Unit 01." Gendo responded, his cool expression never leaving his face.

"But sir, this soon?" Ritsuko protested, concerned. "It's been less than a week."

"Have you found anything odd about him that would stop us from using him?" Gendo asked reasonably.

"Not really, but there are still many unknown factors..." Ritsuko started, before being cut off.

"It would be best for us to have a pilot on standby, wouldn't you agree?""

"Yes…"

"Then get Unit 01 prepared. Keep it under restraints but I want to see if he can interface with it." With that, Gendo turned around and left Ritsuko's office.

Ritsuko briefly wondered what Gendo was thinking. It was true that many of the orders he gave were beyond her understanding of NERV's purpose, but from any angle she looked at it, this particular one delivered more risk than reward, even if she had to admit that Ranma hadn't done anything terribly suspicious.

Shaking her head, she put it out of her mind for later consideration and began to make calls to prepare Unit 01.

HR.

Ranma ran into the school grounds with five minutes to spare before the bell. Dashing through the front courtyard he jumped up to his classroom window, slipping through to the gawking looks of all of the other students in the class. He had done this the last two days, and he had thought that they would have gotten used to it by now, but he supposed that not everyone was as used to the weird and unusual as the citizens of Nerima had been when he lived there.

As had happened before, Touji and Kensuke slid in on either side of Ranma a few seconds before the class began, both giving him strange looks for their own reasons. Kensuke wanted to know all about NERV and Touji was just hoping for a random burst of cold water so that he could see Ranma's girl side again. After the glare the martial artist had given him the first time he'd tried to cause the change deliberately, he hadn't done it again.

After quickly confirming that the current class, history, was going to be yet another re-hash of the teacher's favorite subject, Ranma put his head down on his desk and began to snore… until an eraser hit him in the back of the head.

"Saotome! Buckets! Hall! Now!" The teacher said, glaring at him. Ranma sighed, realizing that he had slept through first period without even realizing it and the much more observant math teacher had arrived. Picking up his old friends the buckets and filling them with water, he proceeded towards the door. Of Course, Touji's foot just happened to stick out from his seat, sending Ranma staggering forward and sending the water in his left bucket all over the front of his pants. The class sat in stunned silence for a moment before breaking out into chaos. Cursing, Ranma just left the room as quickly as possible, which with her was pretty fast.

Since Hikari always watched people who were standing in the hall so that they wouldn't wander off, Ranma was stuck in girl form, holding one half empty and one full bucket of water, for the rest of the period.

Of course, she noted that the class rep kept turning her head towards the other students to glare balefully at Touji, and wondered if she could slip off during one of those times, but didn't really feel like pushing her luck with an annoyed female.

HR.

At lunch, Ranma was in male form again, sitting in front of a camp stove out side of the school where he had just boiled water and was currently working on a small pot full of noodles.

Kensuke walked up to him, dragging Touji by the arm and sitting them both down. "Hi Ranma."

Ranma looked up at them. "Hi Kensuke. I still ain't gunna tell ya anything about NERV."

Kensuke just shook his head. "For once that isn't why I'm here. I brought the prisoner to be executed." After saying this, he tried to do a sloppy salute with his right hand, forgetting that he was gripping Touji's arm at the wrist with it and slapping himself in the face.

Ranma sighed as he saw the taller boy, looking distinctly nervous. "It's okay Touji." He said, poking at his food. "Guess it was kinda stupid of me to try 'n keep the curse hidden considering what happened in my last school."

"Why, what happened?" Kensuke asked, curiously.

"Ended up jumpin into a pool from the second floor on my first day." Ranma explained, with a sheepish grin. "Took some people a little longer to figure it out, though."

Both boys snickered a bit, and Touji looked a little relieved as they sat down to eat lunch with the rather odd new student.

A few minutes later, Ranma was just finishing off the pot of Ramen when a shadow fell over him. Looking up, he saw Hikari smiling down at him.

"Can I join you guys?" She asked, slumping onto the ground.

Kensuke shrugged while Touji looked away for a moment before nodding. Seeing this, Hikari looked questioningly at Kensuke and Ranma, who just shrugged.

After a few minutes of companionable silence and eating, Hikari spoke up. "Saotome-san? Do you know where Ayanami-san is?"

Ranma looked startled for a moment before responding. "She's still in the hospital, I think."

Hikari gasped. "Why would she be there?"

"There was an accident at NERV…" Ranma said, before realizing that he had said too much and clamping a hand over his mouth. He wasn't entirely sure if Rei's status as the pilot of that giant robot was a secret, but he really wished that he hadn't blurted it out anyways.

Kensuke perked up immediately at this. "Rei works for NERV too?"

Ranma sighed and put a hand to his forehead.

Hikari, seeming to ignore the reference to one of her classmates working for a military organization, just looked at Ranma and said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Seeing you two walk into school together, I'd assume you're friends. I was wondering if you could take her school work to her?"

Ranma shook his head. "I don't know her all that well." He explained, and then shrugged. "I can still take her stuff to her, though." Truthfully, he welcomed the excuse to see the blue haired girl again and make sure she was all right. After the battered condition he'd seen her in the day before, he was a little worried about her.

Hikari grinned, pulling a sheaf of papers out of nowhere and handing them to Ranma. "Here they are, and thanks."

He placed the papers in his backpack and then got up as the bell to end lunch period rang.

HR.

The rest of the day went pretty normally, at least where Ranma was concerned. Some of his classmates wouldn't stop sending messages to the terminal on his desk, asking about what had happened at the beginning of the day until Ranma finally snapped in fifth period and told them the whole thing about Jusenkyo. He had been sent out into the hall again for that outburst, but Touji had apparently learned his lesson as he got there with both buckets completely full.

Ranma sighed in relief as the school day ended and he walked back to Misato's apartment. Today had been particularly annoying. After dumping his bag into his room, he walked into the front room to wait for the NERV captain since he had to go to NERV to see the boss about something today.

Seeing Pen-Pen sleeping on the couch, he gave the penguin the evil eye before carefully slipping in next to it. Pen pen just kept right on snoring.

HR.

Misato drove her car down the street, thoughts buzzing around in her head. Ritsuko had approached her earlier in the day, telling her of Gendo's decision to see if Ranma could activate EVA 01. Ritsuko's worries weren't the same as Misato's, however Misato was worried.

After seeing what an Evangelion had done to Rei, several times, she wasn't sure if it was safe for her new charge to pilot one of the gigantic machines. Comforting herself with the memories of some of the insanely risky things Ranma had done in the last few days without getting hurt, Misato opened the door to her apartment, seeing the boy sprawled out on the couch, cautiously petting Pen-Pen.

"I'm home!" She called, slipping off her coat.

"Hey Misato." Ranma responded, getting up off of the couch, leaving the small penguin to sleep. "Y'know that thing can be kinda cute when he ain't annoying."

Misato smiled as she looked at her pet then turned to Ranma. "So you ready to go to NERV?"

Ranma nodded and the two exited the apartment, Misato locking the doors behind them.

HR.

"You want me to do what?" Ranma asked, looking at commander Ikari incredulously.

"I wish for you to attempt to pilot an Evangelion Unit." the man said, his hands steepled in front of his impassive face as he spoke. "I believe that you said "Where do I sign up?" when we informed you of the angels, this would be the place to sign." If one could see behind the man's hands, they would have seen a small grin flicker across his face. Luckily for Gendo's reputation as the hard man of NERV, no one could.

"But why me?" Ranma replied. "Doctor Akagi told me ya needed to be fourteen for some reason to pilot Evangelions."

"Physically, you are fourteen." Gendo responded. He wasn't going to mention that the reason the pilots needed to be fourteen was because they had to have been born within nine months of second impact. After all, if Ranma were indeed able to link with the Evangelion as he suspected was the case due to the boy's blue pattern reading, the last thing he needed was human error messing up the test results.

"I guess I could try," Ranma said, a small smile of his own crossing his face. He didn't have anything to lose, and the fight against whatever had caused second impact was definitely something he wanted a part in.

HR.

Ranma sat in the locker room at NERV, examining the plugsuit that Ritsuko had given him critically. She'd said something about developing one specifically to take his curse into account, but had warned him that this wasn't it and it would likely be... uncomfortable... if he changed in the thing. As such, he would be tested as a guy today, and if all went well, come back for similar tests as a girl tomorrow.

The suit was mostly black, with a few blue sections on the arms and front, and didn't look all that comfortable even without the complication of the change. Apparently it was an integral part of synchronizing with an Evangelion, so he had to wear it. Fastening the last seal and tapping the button on the wrist, he jumped as the suit sucked against his body. That was definitely going to take some getting used to. After donning the small contacts that looked far too much like hair clips for his liking, he walked out of the locker room to see Ritsuko and Misato waiting for him.

"So Ranma. You ready for this?" Ritsuko asked, looking him over to make sure everything was in place.

The prospective pilot nodded and the two women lead him down the hall to the test cage where EVA Unit 01 was stored. The thing was just as impressive as Unit 00, but it was painted mainly in a dark purple.

The pigtailed boy took only a few moments to stare into one of the EVA's blank white eyes, walking over to the entry plug that currently rested on the grating around it's head and letting a group of techs hook him into it. It was rather hard to believe that the plug could be the control center for a giant robot, as the interior basically looked like a hunk of metal with a chair and a couple of handles strapped to it, much like the one he'd dragged Rei out of. After being sealed in, Ranma waited for a moment and Misato's face appeared, seeming to be on a screen that had appeared out of nowhere, floating in mid-air before him.

"All right Ranma. We're moving the plug now." She said, motioning to someone off screen, presumably Ritsuko.

Several seconds later, Ranma felt a jostling sensation. Remembering back to Rei's activation test a few days earlier he thought that the plug was probably being picked up in preparation for being inserted into the EVA.

Misato, on the screen, turned away from Ranma and began issuing orders. As the orders were acknowledged Ranma felt the plug shift again and then it settled into place with a solid thump. Several seconds after that, he felt the cold rush of the LCL flooding the entry plug and opened his mouth, trying to breathe it in as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't choke.

When he was able to breath again, Misato turned back to him as the sequence that he had heard once before for Rei started once again, this time for himself. Ritsuko's voice could be heard in the background. "Primary nerve link connected."

"Connecting secondary nerve links."

That was when Ranma started feeling strange. He could feel a second set of sensations over his own. Wind seeming to tickle tiny portions of bare skin all over his body, his feet on a metal floor and something resting on the back of his neck.

"Um… Misato?" He asked, fidgeting nervously.

Misato turned to him and asked, "Yes Ranma?"

"I'm feeling kind of odd." He said, as Misato's image started to blur in his eyes and he could see the test room outside of Unit 01.

Just then, he heard the technician who had reported Rei's sync rate saying something. "Ma'am. This is incredible… His sync rate is 48 percent!"

Ritsuko could be heard gasping, and Ranma could see one of the dots in the control room running over to another one, presumably Ritsuko going to check out the technician's console.

Then it started. Ranma began to feel something. It was like his emotional aura, however it was coming from outside himself, almost as if the EVA was generating it. But that was impossible, wasn't it? The EVA wasn't alive. The aura he felt spiked with a surge of anger and annoyance as he thought this last, causing him to quickly revise that opinion.

"Um, Dr. Akagi?" He asked, subconsciously causing the EVA's eye to zoom in on the doctor in the test booth.

"Yes Mr. Saotome?" Ritsuko responded, looking at a monitor where Ranma presumed his face was shown.

"Is the EVA alive?"

Ritsuko's face reflected a look of surprise for a moment before she quickly masked it. "Of course not. It's just a machine." She said, thinking that she was re-assuring the boy.

He felt the spike of angry energy return to the field that surrounded him and quickly tried to soothe it. Deciding not to ask anything more about this for the moment, he asked, "So what do I do now?"

"Just try to relax for a bit, and then we can start running you through your paces," The doctor replied.

The pigtailed martial artist sighed, but nodded, wondering if these exercises would be any more challenging than the ones he'd been put through before.

After about an hour, Ranma had his answer as Ritsuko ordered the entry plug removed. Getting out of the Machine, he scrubbed the remainder of the LCL off of his body, before getting dressed and staggering out of the shower room.

"Ranma? What's wrong?" Misato asked, supporting the smaller boy.

"I.. I don't know." Ranma said, his head drooping forward a little. "I just feel so tired for some reason."

The purple haired woman smiled softly. No matter what his real age was, Ranma still looked like a fourteen year old kid, and he looked really cute while trying to hold his drooping eyelids up like that. Helping him out to the car, she settled him into the passenger seat and climbed in herself, starting it up.

HR.

Ritsuko sat in her office, looking pensive. Several things about the activation today were troubling her, first among them what Ranma had asked. He could have just been expressing curiosity at a random thought, but what if he wasn't? She wasn't entirely sure, especially given the other troubling incident that had happened during the test. For just a fraction of a second, the MAGI had registered some form of contamination in the LCL that they couldn't recognize, and a spike in Ranma's AT Field. She had watched the screens like a hawk, waiting for it to show up again later, but it hadn't, and she'd had to reluctantly admit that it was probably some sort of equipment failure.

Putting her worries aside for the moment, she went back to writing a report on unit one's first activation. For a unit that only had a 0.000000001 percent chance of activating it had gone surprisingly smoothly.

END.

Yes, the title is a bad Japanese Pun. I REGRET NOTHING!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please R&R!

Angel Attack! No, we're serious!

Chapter 5. Angel Attack! No, we're serious this time!

2000, Nerima, Japan.

Ranma's eyes opened, her head throbbing with pain. Trying to reach her hand up to feel what was causing it, she felt something heavy shift off of her arm. Lifting her head up, which brought a large increase in the amount of pain she felt, she saw a beam pinning her arm and a good part of her body to the ground. It had apparently rained some time after she had been knocked out, as the ground was muddy and the wreckage all around her was covered in a thin layer of water.

Giving a great heave, Ranma forced the beam off of her arm only to wince in more pain. Groaning, she picked herself up off of the ground and almost fell as her right leg informed her rather loudly that it had a twisted ankle.

Grabbing a small stick from the ground next to the larger beam, Ranma studiously ignored the wet sucking sound as she seemed to pull it out of something soft.

"I gotta get to Doc Tofu's…" She muttered, hobbling from the remains of the Dojo.

As she walked down the street, Ranma noticed that almost the whole town was completely destroyed. There were bodies everywhere, people who were caught by whatever had happened in the middle of doing something. She saw her nemesis, the old ladle lady, sprawled out against a wall with her ladle imbedded in the ground close by.

Jerking her head away from the scene, she quickly found her way to the clinic of Dr. Ono Tofu. Fortunately for her, as was required by district building codes, the building was heavily reinforced and still standing. The doctor was nowhere to be found, but she didn't need him, just his medical supplies.

After an hour of bandaging her injuries and resting, Ranma hauled herself up from a seated position on one of Dr. Tofu's patient beds and walked out of the clinic, her injuries helped greatly by the bandages that she had on as well as the large dose of pain killers that she had taken.

"Gotta find Akane…" She muttered, walking roughly in the direction of the school. After about two hours of aimless wandering, Ranma found someone in a blue dress lying on the ground. Running towards her, she flipped over the body to see Akane's face staring back up at her… with a piece of steel pipe jammed through her skull on the right side.

HR. - 2014, Tokyo 3.

Misato was jolted out of a nice, beer induced nap by an anguished scream from her charge's room. "AKANE!"

Rolling off of the couch in an undignified heap, she ran out of the living room to see what the matter was. When she got to Ranma's room, she saw him curled up on the bed, shaking silently. Misato was surprised. Ranma hadn't really shown many of the more negative emotions since he had come to live with her, and this was a very obvious display of extreme grief.

Walking over to Ranma, Misato laid a hand on his shoulder and he spun, hugging her in a death grip and sobbing into her shoulder. Awkwardly patting him on the back, Misato murmured, "its okay, Calm down. You're all right." After about thirty seconds of this, Ranma's sobs trailed off and he looked up at Misato, a look of shame on his face.

"Uh… Misato… I'm sorry about that." He turned his head away. He hated losing emotional control like that. It always happened when he had that dream. Even the Neko-ken dreams only left him in a cold sweat, but seeing all of Nerima, his family and Akane just... gone had been an experience that he thought he'd probably never recover from.

Misato grinned back at him. "Don't worry about it. No one but me saw you and I'm not going to tell anyone. What got you so upset, anyways?"

Ranma sighed. "I had a dream about Second Impact. I woke up when I found Akane." He looked away for a moment, and Misato gave him the time to recover before speaking, briefly reaching up with one hand to brush it along her cross-shaped pendant before getting up from the bed.

"Well, I'll be making lunch for us. Come out when you're ready."

Ranma looked surprised. "Lunch? What time is it?"

"It's about twelve. I saw that you were very tired from yesterday so I let you sleep. We don't have to be back at the Geofront until later."

Ranma shot out of bed. "Aw crap. I'm late for school! I'll end up holdin buckets all day." He didn't really like school, but holding two buckets of water was just ASKING for trouble.

Misato smiled at him. "Don't worry. Today's Saturday. Tokyo three runs on the North American school schedule so you don't have to worry about missing school."

The dark haired boy sighed in relief and Misato left the room to start making lunch.

Ranma quickly got dressed and came out to join her in eating it, to see her dumping a can of beer into the curry she had just made. "What the heck are you doing?"

Misato turned to him, setting the now empty can on the counter. "Making lunch, what does it look like?"

Ranma shook his head. "I think I'll make my own." He muttered, before walking back into his room to grab some supplies. Misato looked miffed for a moment before going back to making lunch. "Oh well, more for me."

As Ranma dug through his backpack, he found the papers that Hikari had given him the day before. 'Damn. I forgot to give these to Rei.' He thought, folding them up and slipping them into his pants pocket in order to remember them for later.

Grabbing one of his few remaining dehydrated food packs, as well as some spices to make it more tolerable to eat, from the bottom of his pack, he walked out with it to the kitchen. Looking into the cupboard, he found a pot that wasn't too caked with something indescribable to use and put it on the stove, filling it half full of water and starting to make some soup.

Misato looked over at him. "You can cook?"

He shrugged as he flicked on the burner he was in front of. "Yeah. Kinda had to learn, what with being on the road for so long."

Misato clapped Ranma on the shoulder and grinned at him. "Well, guess what? If this stuff's any good, you're doing the cooking from now on."

Ranma tried to protest, but remembered that Misato was letting him stay at her house and let the protest die before it came to his lips. Besides, it'd be better than eating her food, which while edible was just barely so.

After a few minutes, Ranma poured the contents of the pot he was cooking with into two bowls and set them on the table. "Enjoy." He said, before digging into his own.

Misato took a sip of her own bowl of soup before getting up, grabbing a can of beer and cracking it open to drink with it. Sitting back down she began to eat the soup, smiling happily. Ranma was a pretty good cook, and if she went out and bought real food supplies, it'd be no more instant Ramen for her.

Ranma looked at Misato strangely before polishing off his own food and getting up. Turning to the still eating woman, he asked, "Hey. Do you know where Rei is?"

Misato thought for a moment before responding. "I think she's in the NERV infirmary. Why?"

Ranma fished the homework out from his pocket and showed it to Misato. "Hikari asked me to deliver this to her."

The older woman looked at the homework for a moment and then said, "Well, you can give it to her after we finish up running the sync test for your female form, okay?"

"Right, that," the pigtailed martial artist said.

Misato decided to ignore her charge's downcast expression for the moment, going back to her food as he left the kitchen, apparently heading to his room.

HR.

"Are we done yet?" Ranma asked, rather irritated and just a little bruised in the entry plug of Unit 01. The tests today had actually lasted longer than the ones during her first synchronization, as they had apparently felt confident enough to release the locks and let her attempt a few short walks around the testing room.

This would have been quite exciting for her, if it weren't for the fact that the balance changes needed to walk in the EVA were several times more difficult to get right than those she'd had to deal with when she'd first gotten her curse, and she'd face-planted twice.

"I think we've gotten enough data," Misato chuckled from the unit's communications screen. "Doctor Akagi?"

"Yes, this was a fine sample, you did well Pilot Saotome," the blonde agreed.

Ranma nodded, as she slowly backed Unit 01 into the set of restraints that it had been let out of an hour before, letting the technicians take over as she felt the cage close in around her. "Unit 01 is secure," Aoba's voice came from the control room.

"Okay, eject the entry plug and get her out of there," Misato said, and Ranma sighed in relief as she saw the LCL start draining. By the time she had gotten out of the plug, Misato was waiting for her on the catwalk with a towel.

"Nicely done for your first real session in the EVA," The captain complimented.

"Yeah, tell me that again when I'm not fallin' on my face," The pigtailed martial artist grumbled back, before wiping down her hair and tossing the towel back. "We heading home now?"

"I thought you wanted to give something to Rei," Misato said, confused. "Besides, I've got a meeting I have to be at, so I won't be ready to leave for about an hour, but you're welcome to head home instead."

"Nah, I forgot about that stuff for Rei, thanks," Ranma responded. "You got any idea where the infirmary is?"

Misato nodded, and started giving the redhead a rapid fire set of rather convoluted instructions, which she was pretty sure had three lefts in them somewhere, before Dr. Akagi called her, and she left to join her.

HR.

Misato and Ritsuko walked into a meeting room where Gendo, Fuyutsuki and several department heads were sitting, the scientist apologizing for their lateness, while Misato just took her seat. One of the department heads, the chief of security section 2, cleared his throat loudly and gave the strategic operations officer a hard glare before continuing with a briefing on security protocols, but the interruption barely slowed down the meeting. After a number of conversations about things such as budget cuts and maintenance reports, the conversation turned to more interesting topics.

Gendo looked at Ritsuko, asking, "What is Rei's condition?"

Ritsuko organized a stack of papers in front of her, before speaking. "Her arm fracture was unfortunate. It will take her about a month to heal from that but we can let her out of hospital in a few weeks. The other injuries should be healed by then as well."

Gendo frowned. "When can we perform another sync test with Unit 00?"

Ritsuko answered. "The EVA took minimal damage during the event, so it'll be ready within two weeks, however I would strongly recommend against using Rei to pilot it until she's fully healed, and an investigation into precisely what caused the unit to go out of control should be undertaken as well."

Gendo sighed in acknowledgement and turned to Misato. "Mr. Saotome's status?"

Misato shook her head. "He's confusing." She responded, throwing up her hands.

Gendo raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Misato shrugged. "Well, he's supposed to be about thirty, and Ritsuko has verified his story, right?"

Ritsuko nodded. "According to what records we still have from before the second impact, he was born in the early 1980s, and his fingerprints match a set taken at a police station when he was twelve."

Fuyutsuki looked at the doctor curiously. "May I ask why the boy was being processed by the police at such a young age?" He asked, not wanting to have to worry about criminal activity in the future.

"Apparently he was arrested along with his father for several cases of breaking and entering. The father was found to be the main suspect, so it's nothing we have to worry about, most likely." Ritsuko explained.

"…but he acts like any other fourteen year old most of the time. He's kind of naive and he has the least amount of backbone around women that I've seen in a while." Misato said, bringing the topic back to her original question, though carefully deciding to leave out any mention of the nightmare she'd witnessed earlier in the day.

Gendo nodded, agreeing with Misato's point.

Ritsuko spoke up after this. "My guess is that he was affected mentally by whatever changed him into a child again. He's got the memories of a thirty year old but the mind of a fourteen year old. His cortical and hormonal development seems to support that theory. Unfortunately, I've honestly never run across anything that could explain it"

While Misato processed this, Gendo turned to Ritsuko. "Have you found out whether he is actually an Angel or not?"

Ritsuko nodded, pulling a few pieces of paper out of her briefcase. "I'm pretty sure he's human. His physiology is almost perfectly normal. His muscle density is rather high, and the fact that he shifts forms is still unexplainable, but his DNA is a 99.89 percent match for a standard human genotype."

"So we can use him as a standard pilot for Unit 01, then?" Gendo asked.

"I don't see why not." Ritsuko answered, having reasoned herself into thinking that Ranma's comment about the EVAs being alive the day before was just an innocent question.

After a few more minutes of NERV related discussion, the meeting disbanded and Gendo dismissed the command staff for the day.

HR.

After a quick trip to the change room to get changed back into her clothes and become male again, Ranma quickly found out that the set of directions Misato had given him on the way out of the EVA cages for how to get to Rei's hospital room were... flawed, to say the least, but after asking for directions from several employees in the halls, he had managed to find his way to the medical section and then to Rei's room. Knocking on the door, he heard a muffled voice say "Come in."

Doing so, he saw Rei sitting up in her bed, her left arm suspended above her body by a strap and her other holding a book which she was reading.

"Hi Rei." The pigtailed martial artist said, tentatively.

"Ranma." Rei said, setting her book down and looking at him. Catching a quick peak at the cover of the book, Ranma saw that it was a school textbook.

"I brought you the work you missed at school for the last few days." he said, handing the now slightly crumpled bunch of papers to Rei.

She took them and looked them over. "We had an essay on second impact this week." She said, in a flat tone.

"Yeah." Ranma said, laughing a bit. "That seems to be all that old history teacher talks about."

"It was one of the greatest disasters in human history." Rei said, rummaging through the rest of the papers.

Ranma took a second to puzzle that out before nodding in agreement. "Hey. It's kinda lonely around here without any visitors. You want me to come and see you every once in a while?"

Rei blinked, almost looking surprised. "…That would be agreeable."

Ranma shrugged, settling down deeper into his seat and withdrawing an old scroll he'd been trying to puzzle out for a while. The two didn't exactly chat during the next hour, but the silence wasn't tense, simply there.

As the pigtailed boy was reaching for another scroll to occupy himself with, the door swung open, and Misato stood in it. "Ranma, I'm heading home, are you coming?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I guess," The pigtailed martial artist said, tucking his things away in his backpack. "I'll see ya again later, Rei."

Rei nodded as Misato smirked, Ranma only noticing the first as he walked to the door, turning around just as he opened it. "Get better soon, okay? Everyone at school's worried about ya." Of course, that wasn't really true. No one seemed to notice she was even missing until Hikari commented on it, however Ranma wasn't going to say that.

Rei looked at the closed door where Ranma had been, the corners of her mouth lifting up. 'People are worried about me.' she thought, before getting started on her school work.

HR.

Ranma rolled out of bed at seven in the morning, determined to get to the bathroom faster than Pen-Pen for once. A female shout of outrage signified that he hadn't, and an angry and female Ranma came stomping out of the bathroom a few minutes later, resigning herself to a life of cold showers for as long as she stayed at the Katsuragi home.

Shrugging it off, she reached up into a cupboard and grabbed some breakfast fixings, which Misato had bought a few days before, beginning to cook.

About five minutes later Misato walked in, in a robe, which she had forgotten to close. Ranma quickly looked away from the older woman, who was inadvertently exposing herself to the entire room. Of course, since the entire room only contained a penguin and a currently female house guest she didn't really have much to worry about.

After Misato realized that it was a bit drafty and closed her robe, Ranma walked over and handed her a bowl of rice. As always, Misato got up to grab her required can of beer to have with the rice, and then began eating. This routine had been going on for the last week, ever since Ranma's first sync test with Unit 01. Ranma had kept going to visit Rei, and Ritsuko had kept running her, or him, through the paces in the EVA, but things had been pretty boring. Unfortunately for Ranma, that was about to change.

"Hey Ranma." Misato said, looking up from her rice.

"Yeah?" The redhead asked, already half finished her own.

"Do you want to miss school today?"

Ranma blinked. "What do I have to do?"

Misato fished a picture from a pile of papers in the middle of the table, sliding it across to Ranma. She caught it, looking at the image of a dark brown haired boy with blue eyes and a thin face. His expression looked like the world was about to end. Ranma just stared blankly at Misato for clarification.

"I'm supposed to go pick him up this morning. He's coming in as the Pilot of Unit 01." Misato explained, before something seemed to click in her still drowsy mind. "Wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to be the pilot of Unit 01? Oh well. If the commander wants his son brought here who am I to complain?"

"He's the boss's son?" Ranma asked, taking a closer look at the boy. "Shoulda noticed the resemblance."

Misato shrugged. "So, do you want to come or not?"

Ranma nodded, getting up from the table. "Sounds like something fun to do." Going over to the sink, she splashed herself with hot water and loosened his Chinese style clothes.

"Great." Misato said, cheerfully, before heading for the door.

"Erm, Misato. Ain't ya forgetting something?" Ranma asked, indicating the older woman's robe with one hand.

"Oh, right." Misato said, blushing, before running back to her room. Quickly dressing in her normal uniform, she dashed out to join Ranma at the door and the two headed off.

HR.

Shinji sat on the train, looking through the window at the cityscape passing by as he listened to his walkman. Not for the first time, he wondered if coming to Tokyo 3 was a mistake. His father very rarely ever paid attention to him when he wasn't of use to him, and Shinji didn't want to know how he could be of use now. Of course, the pictures that he had been sent to show who he was going to meet confused him as well.

Pulling out one, it showed a woman with long, dark hair bending over to show lots of cleavage, along with an arrow pointing at her chest with "Attention to here" written next to it. It also had a phone number written on the bottom. Blushing fiercely, he slipped that picture back into his pocket.

The next one showed a head shot of a black haired boy with his hair in a pigtail. There was nothing unusual about him, accept for the fact that he looked to be the same age as Shinji.

The final picture was that of a red haired girl with a similar hairstyle to the boy. She was standing and looking slightly away from the camera, wearing a skin tight black and blue outfit that almost gave him a nosebleed. His blush getting even worse, he stuck that picture away in his pocket as well.

As the train came to a stop, Shinji saw that the city around him seemed to be in a bit of a panic. There were sirens going off everywhere and all departing trains were cancelled. Getting off of the train, he looked around to see that everyone was headed for some large buildings near the ends of the streets. Deciding to call the number that was written on the bottom of the older woman's picture, Shinji walked over to a pay phone.

HR.

At NERV HQ, Ritsuko Akagi was having a panic attack. Something had shown up off shore and was registering a very strong blue pattern. Unlike Ranma's arrival, this time several outside sources had identified this angel as a definite threat, and Misato wasn't picking up either her home or cell phones.

At the front of the room, Aoba spoke up. "Ma'am. The angel has just broken through the U N's first defensive line. Mr. Fuyutsuki reports that they are getting desperate and may call upon NERV at any time."

Ritsuko sighed and tightened her already vice like grip on the side of her seat. 'Damn it Misato, get here soon.'

HR.

At Misato's apartment, Pen Pen was flapping his small wings angrily at the phone. It hadn't stopped ringing once in the past twenty minutes, and even when he'd knocked it off of the table it normally stood on, there was another incessant ringing noise coming from Ranma's bedroom. With an extra loud indignant "Wark!" of protest, the black and white bird locked himself in his freezer for the rest of the day.

HR.

Ranma sat in Misato's car, enjoying the scenery passing by and knowing that, for the moment at least, he wasn't dealing with school, especially the boredom that was first period. He wasn't entirely sure about meeting a kid who was related to commander Ikari, as the older man came off very coldly, and sharing a car, let alone piloting duties on the Evangelion, with someone like that would probably not be too much fun, especially with his tendency to shove his foot in his mouth.

As the vehicle exited the city center and the tall buildings that tended to obscure the view there, Ranma's eyes widened as he saw something out of his window. "Hey Misato?"

Misato turned away from the road, making Ranma wince, and asked. "Yes Ranma, what is it?"

Ranma didn't say anything, simply pointing to what he'd seen, a humanoid creature that was about the size of an EVA and that was stomping its way through the streets.

Misato cursed and slammed her foot down on the accelerator, and Ranma gulped as he saw her reach down for the transmission and jerk the car into a higher gear. As he was slammed into the back of his seat with the force he tried to distract himself from this by thinking. "Was that an angel?" He finally asked. He'd known that the angels had to be the size of EVA units before, but the idea hadn't really sunk into his brain until he'd seen the monstrous being actually stomping through the city.

"Yeah." Misato said, frowning worriedly.

"Maybe we should head back to NERV and get to the EVAs." Ranma suggested.

"And leave that poor kid standing out there waiting for us?" Misato said, shaking her head. "Remember, he doesn't know where the shelters are, and quite frankly, if I got the commander's son killed I think I'd be next."

Ranma looked uncertain for a moment before nodding.

HR.

Shinji sighed as he hung up the phone. All he got was this strange "Wark Wark" noise every time he called the number. Deciding to head for the buildings where everyone else was going, he began going that way when a blue car pulled up in front of him.

"Hey!" A woman called from inside the car, waving him over.

Shinji ran over to the car, only to recognize the woman from the first picture behind the wheel. The boy from the second was sitting in the passenger seat, leaning forward to allow Shinji to get into the back. He quickly slid into the back seat, before the pigtailed boy slammed the door and the car took off.

"Sorry we took so long." The woman said. "But there are barricades all over the area, not to mention panicking people."

"That's all right." Shinji said, buckling himself into his seat.

Misato wondered at the strange lethargic tone the boy used to talk to her, but caught a second glimpse of the Angel in the distance and dismissed it as she slammed her foot down on the accelerator, her hand reaching down to do things to the gear shift that the Ikari boy was surprised didn't make it break.

"So, you're Shinji, right?" The boy in the passenger seat asked, looking back.

"Y, Yes." Shinji stuttered, nervously. The attack of that... whatever it was had unsettled him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ranma, the other pilot of the EVA the boss wants you to use." The pigtailed boy explained, not noticing Misato wincing next to him.

"EVA?" Shinji asked, confused. Was this EVA thing what his father had asked him to come for? He looked down at the SDAT player he'd been listening to on the train.

"The EVAs are..." Ranma started, but was interrupted by Misato's loud curse and the sudden jerking of the car's brakes.

"What's wrong, Misato?" He asked, as she reached over to his side of the car and quickly yanked a pair of binoculars out of the glove box.

The older woman didn't answer right away, just holding the binoculars up to her eyes. "Those idiots!" She muttered, as she zoomed in on the angel. "They're dropping an N2 mine. Shinji, Ranma, get down!" She yelled, diving for the Ikari boy in order to get him below the windows, hoping that the martial artist could fend for himself.

Before Shinji could think anything coherent, there was a tremendous explosion in the distance, and a huge pressure wave washed over the three occupants of the car. The vehicle's frame took the brunt of the impact, rolling several times before coming to a stop, however he and Misato remained relatively unscathed.

"Ranma, you all right?" The woman asked, looking up from her covering position over Shinji. She cursed again when she saw the pigtailed boy, sprawled out on the front seats, a section of the roof above his seat visibly dented inward and spattered with a small amount of blood.

HR.

About ten minutes later, Misato grunted as she and Shinji pushed her car back onto four wheels. 'Damn! This thing is a wreck and I only had twelve more payments on it!' She thought, then shook her head and got back to more important matters. She'd taken off her jacket and used it to prop Ranma's head up after she'd moved him on to the ground outside the car, but the fact that he hadn't regained consciousness yet lead her to believe that something was pretty badly wrong with him. "Shinji, help me lay Ranma out on the back seat." She said, as she carefully lifted his head.

The dark brown haired boy nodded, as he helped the woman carefully move the other boy. At this point, he was scared. He'd just seen a giant monster rampaging through a city, an N2 mine had been dropped and someone had been injured, and pretty badly if the bloody gash on Ranma's head was anything to go on. What had his father brought him back to?

"Come on Shinji, let's go." Misato said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Right." He said, quietly, before sitting in the front passenger seat of the car and closing the door.

HR.

Shinji stood on top of the massive EVA cage, looking in on the monster inside. "My father wants me to pilot that?" He asked, surprised.

Misato nodded. "The EVA units are the earth's only defense against the angels and our only other pilots are in hospital." She said, trying to keep her expression firm instead of worried about Ranma's condition. "You're our only hope."

Shinji whirled on Gendo, who was standing with his hands held behind his back in a control booth above the cage. "I was right! The only reason you called me here was to do something for you!" Gendo's face remained stony however anyone behind him would have noticed his hands tightening into fists.

"So will you pilot the EVA, or not?" The commander of NERV asked, his voice perfectly neutral.

"No…" Shinji said, looking down.

"Has Ranma recovered from his injuries yet?" Gendo asked, looking at Ritsuko.

"No sir. He has a very bad concussion, and possibly a fractured skull." The blonde woman reported, from her place next to Misato.

Gendo almost allowed himself to sigh, before bringing his hand up to adjust his glasses and disguise his rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He really hated to give his next order, but apparently he had no choice. Reaching over to a set of buttons on the wall, he tapped one. "Fuyutsuki, prepare Rei to pilot Evangelion unit 01."

"But sir! Rei's too badly injured to pilot an EVA!" Ritsuko objected, loudly.

Gendo glared at her. "There is no other choice, doctor." He barked, turning away and walking out of the room, to the control room.

Shinji blinked. "Rei?" He asked, before seeing a pale blue haired girl being wheeled into the room on a stretcher.

"Get her off of that and into the EVA." Ritsuko ordered, sounding reluctant. As a technician lifted Rei from the stretcher, a tremor went through the NERV base, causing him to stumble and almost drop her. A whimper came from Rei's mouth and Shinji snapped.

"All right! I'll do it." The dark haired boy said, walking towards the entry plug.

Ritsuko sighed in relief as Rei was resettled on the stretcher and Shinji was hooked into the Plug. She would have preferred he have a plug suit but unfortunately, the angel attack had come too soon for him to be fitted with one. She reasoned that it shouldn't effect his synchronization too much.

"All right." Misato said, striding out of the EVA cage and entering her 'command mode.' It sometimes seemed scary how quickly the normally cheerily ditzy woman could become so serious, but Ritsuko often thought that it was one of the main reasons that she'd been selected as NERV's strategic operations officer.

As the two entered Central Dogma, the EVA's plug had already been slid into place. "Prepare the EVA for activation." Misato ordered, walking into the middle of the room.

"Ma'am, Pilot Saotome's not in there, and whoever is, he's not wearing a plug suit." Maya objected.

"Just do it." Ritsuko snapped, settling down at her own console.

"Yes, Ma'am." The younger woman said, almost sounding offended as she started typing.

As the entry plug filled with LCL, Shinji's voice could be heard over the intercom. "I think I'm gunna be sick." He said, expelling a small flood of bubbles from his mouth.

"Shinji, just suck it up. You are a boy, aren't you?" She said, trying to put him at ease in her own… unique… way. The boy seemed to miss the humor of the comment, however he returned to the task at hand.

As the nerve links connected, Maya made a surprised sound. "Ma'am, he's reading with a 41.3 percent synchronization rate."

"Amazing, and under these conditions?" Ritsuko muttered, before the nerve link charts turned green. "Pilot synchronization complete." She reported, looking at Misato.

The strategic operations officer nodded. "Hyuga, move Unit 01 to the launch area and prepare to release it through exit 34." She ordered, surveying the tactical map on the main screen.

"It's ready captain." Hyuga reported, a few seconds later.

"EVA Launch!" Misato yelled, silently wishing Shinji luck.

END.

Some of you who read the previous version of the fic may notice that this chapter is a lot larger than it was before, and has a LOT of changes. This was what I was talking about when I mentioned major changes in chapter 5... which is kinda funny, since about half of these were in chapter 6, before I realized that 5 was pretty low on action and 6 was stupidly short.

Hopefully, the fusion of the two will fix both of those issues.

Next chapter, look forward to the first of the Angel Of Light ReMaster's DVD Extras!

Also, don't forget to review!

Welcome home

Chapter 6, Welcome home.

Evangelion Unit 01 slammed to a stop at the top of the launch tube, and Shinji Ikari stopped screaming. Even in the fluid filled environment of the Evangelion, the shock had been sudden, and his stomach was currently down at his ankles. He slumped forward in his seat, his hands clutching spasmodically at the handles on either side, as he looked up… to see that the Angel was only a few hundred meters away from him, and it had just turned in his direction.

He was jolted out of an impromptu staring contest with the Angel by the sound of Ritsuko's voice over the EVA's communications systems. "All right Shinji, all we want you to do now is try and walk." She said, looking out at him seriously.

"Okay… Walk." Shinji said, trying to think of how to make the machine he was piloting do just that. To his surprise, as soon as his mind formed the picture of the action, the EVA lifted a foot, moved it about a dozen meters forward, and dropped it down on the ground. Shinji winced as he realized that he'd just flattened someone's car.

Lifting the other foot in the same way he had the first, the EVA pilot was in the middle of setting it back down when a movement out of the corner of his eye distracted him. Losing his concentration, The Eva's foot came down clumsily and it lost its balance, falling forward onto its face.

Shinji just groaned in exasperation.

HR.

In the Geofront, Misato resisted the urge to slap her palm to her forehead. She'd seen Ranma's first couple tests in unit 01, and should have seen this awkwardness coming, especially with how nervous Shinji was. "Shinji, just get back up. You can do this!" She shouted, as she looked nervously at the angel that was approaching the prone Evangelion slowly.

Much to the strategic operations officer's horror, the EVA didn't make it to its feet in time, and the angel grabbed it by the head, lifting it to a standing position before grabbing its arm and breaking it. That's when Shinji started screaming again.

HR.

He woke up to realize that he wasn't in pain anymore. Cracking open his eyes, he quickly closed them again as light assaulted his senses. Preparing himself this time, he opened his eyes again to focus on a tiled ceiling. 'Unfamiliar ceiling.' He thought, before struggling to his feet and walking over to a sink in the corner of the room, splashing his face with water in order to wake up. Shaking his head violently, he remembered what had happened previously in the day. His memories tapered off somewhere after he had had his left arm crushed by the Angel, and he wondered whether he had won or not. Feeling a sick sense of dread, he raised the arm in question and examined it, turning it one way and then the other in the light. He still felt a few random twinges of pain, but it looked whole and healthy.

As he turned towards the door, Shinji noticed that there were two beds in the room. Walking over to the second one, he saw the boy who had been in the car with Misato and himself, with a bandage rapped around the top of his head. "Ranma." He remembered. That was what the boy had called himself. He'd said that he was another pilot for the machine that Shinji'd been forced to use. The Evangelion.

Shinji slumped down onto the bed that he had originally gotten up from. 'I wish you'd have been out there instead of me." He said. "At least then, maybe things wouldn't have been screwed up so badly."

"Hey, Don't talk like that. You did well out there today." Came a voice, causing Shinji to look up. Standing in the doorway was Misato, looking at him and smiling slightly.

"Katsuragi-san?" He asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I came to see if you two were feeling better." She said, turning to the bed next to Shinji's and looking at the boy in it. "Hey Ranma." She called softly, shaking the boy slightly. He just groaned. "Ranma!" She said again, raising the volume a little and shaking him harder. He just groaned more. Sighing in frustration, Misato walked over to the sink, grabbed a glass from next to it and filled it with cold water. "Ranma, if you don't get up right now I'm going to throw water on you!"

Shinji got between Misato and the other boy. "Isn't he really badly hurt?"

Misato shook her head. "Ranma heals quickly. Ritsuko said that it was safe to wake him up a good two hours ago. He just sleeps like a log." After saying that, the purple haired woman walked past Shinji and tipped the glass of water over the other boy's head.

"Gah!" Ranma sputtered, as the cold water ran into her mouth. "What'd ya do that for?" After saying this, something seemed to happen and she winced, lifting a hand to her head. "And why do I feel like I've been hit in the head with a rock or somethin?"

Misato winced for a moment. She really should have thought that out a little more, as she didn't know the effects of sudden shape shifting on a head injury. "Are you all right?" She asked, concerned, stepping over to the redhead's side.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Ranma said, not wanting to nod her head for fear that she'd shake something loose. This feeling actually kind of reminded her of the old days in Nerima, although she was pretty sure even Akane hadn't ever hit her in the head this hard. Remembering something, she glared at Misato. "Why'd you hit me with the water?"

"Well, we need to head home and I couldn't wake you up any other way." Misato explained, sheepishly.

"Home? Where are we?" Ranma asked, taking notice of her surroundings for the first time. She was in a hospital room with two beds. She was laying in one of them, and Misato was standing next to it with an empty glass in her hand. Shinji was sitting on the other one, looking back and forth between her and a waterlogged picture he had in his hand in confusion.

"You forgot to tell him about the curse before ya woke me up, didn't you?" Ranma asked, pointing at the stunned boy, and wondering what the picture he was looking at was.

Misato slapped a hand to her forehead. "I knew I had forgotten something."

"Huh?" The Ikari boy stuttered, articulately.

"Don't worry. I'll explain it later, but for now all that matters is that I'm still Ranma." The redhead said, looking at Misato in annoyance. She had sort of hoped that she could have broken the news to the other pilot slightly more gently.

Misato looked unfazed by Ranma's glare as she left the room. The martial artist and the confused boy quickly following.

As the group proceeded down the hall, Shinji spoke up. "Um, Misato-san, where are you taking me?" He asked, uncertainly.

"Like I said, we're going home." Misato said, looking back at him and smiling reassuringly. "Your father wanted to put you in one of the employee apartments, but I told him I'd take you in instead."

"I see." Shinji said. So his father didn't even want to see him outside of work. Misato seemed nice, though he wasn't entirely sure about Ranma. He... or she... was a little odd, to say the least.

"Hey, isn't that Rei?" Ranma asked, breaking Shinji out of his train of thought as she pointed to a gurney that was being wheeled down another hall. Shinji looked, indeed seeing the light blue haired girl lying on top of it.

"Rei? You okay?" Ranma asked, Running up to the stretcher and looking her over worriedly.

Rei looked at Ranma, her eyes slightly unfocused. "I am fine Ranma. Commander Ikari required me down at the EVA cages." Ranma sighed in relief as she turned away from Rei's stretcher. "Hey Misato. Why did the boss want Rei down at the cages, anyways?"

Misato looked nervous. "Just for a few tests." She said, thinking that Ranma wouldn't react all that favorably to the statement that Gendo was planning to use Rei to fight the Angel, even if it had been a necessary action.

"Kinda odd that NERV'd be running tests even on someone as banged up as she is." Ranma noted, but quickly put it out of her mind. "So you're headed back to your room?"

"Yes." The first child answered, as the somewhat annoyed orderly whose job Ranma had interrupted pushed her past.

"I'll come by to visit you tomorrow, Okay?" Ranma called after the girl. She just acknowledged with a slightly upraised hand before turning out of sight.

Shinji watched this with interest, while Misato grinned. "Hmm, seems like you're worried about her, Ranma." She teased, even though she was just as relieved to see Rei healthy and on her way back to her room.

The pigtailed redhead just looked away, before changing the subject by force. "So Shinji, why didn't the boss offer to let you stay with him?" She asked, bluntly.

"My father and I.. aren't very close." Shinji admitted quietly.

The group fell silent for a few moments, the depressing mood of Shinji's last statement settling around them as they exited NERV's hospital wing into the parking garage. This lasted until the car passed out of the Geofront and into Tokyo 3. Even Misato's normally boisterous driving habits were toned down, thankfully for Ranma's still aching head.

As Misato searched for a way to lighten the mood, she got an idea. Quickly pulling over to the edge of the road at a convenient rest stop, she opened the driver's side door and stepped out.

"What's going on, Misato?" Ranma asked, curiously.

"Nothing, I just want to show Shinji something." The woman said, making hand motions for the two pilots to get out of the car. Puzzled, they did so and walked to the edge of the road.

Shinji looked over the guard rail, frowning. All he saw was the totaled remains of the angel battle, a city that had been torn to pieces. "I don't understand." He said, softly.

Nervously, Misato looked down to her watch. If she was right, the cleanup crews would have cleared the building hatches of debris any moment now and... yes, there it was. She smiled as the majestic skyscrapers of Tokyo 3 rose from their battle position just as the sun moved into position to gleam off of them impressively. 'I'm a genius.' she thought, ignoring the fact that a great deal of this display was a matter of complete luck. "Shinji, this is Tokyo 3. This is what you protected today."

Shinji looked on in awe at the sight before him, and truthfully, so did Ranma. She'd seen the city plenty of times, but she had never actually seen it enter or exit battle mode. "Wait, Shinji defeated the Angel?" She asked, the memory of the giant that had been attacking the city having suddenly come back to her.

"Yeah." Misato said, realizing that Ranma had been unconscious during most of the battle. "We had to launch him in the EVA since you and Rei were too badly injured."

"Wow, he defeated an angel on his first run in the EVA, that's pretty impressive." Ranma said, whistling. "The first time I piloted it without restraints I fell on my face." She was trying to cheer Shinji up, but had unknowingly done the reverse.

"I don't really remember it very well." He confessed. The group just stood in silence for a few more seconds, before Misato commented that they should probably start heading home.

HR.

Shinji walked into the Katsuragi apartment, a large bag of groceries in his hands. Tilting it slightly to the side so that he could see, he surveyed the place a little dubiously. Although Ranma did the cooking, he wasn't exactly very big on keeping the place clean, as long as he could find what he needed when he needed it, and Misato didn't mind the mess. As a result, it was only in moderately better shape than it had been when he'd moved in, and to Shinji, it looked vaguely like a pig sty.

After quickly dashing off to get some hot water, Ranma grabbed the bag out of Shinji's hand, setting it next to the one he'd brought in. "Lemme help you with that."

Shinji looked surprised. "How did you change again?" He asked, confused.

"It's based on water temperature." Ranma replied, before heading to the door to pick up another load of groceries. "Y'know, you could help." He commented, looking over his shoulder to see Misato sprawled out on the couch, somehow already having grabbed a beer from the fridge.

She just grinned, saluted him with her beer and continued drinking.

Shinji looked between the two other occupants of the apartment dubiously. This was going to be an... interesting place to live. As he headed for the kitchen and saw a small, black and white bird waddling out of a mini-fridge next to the main unit, he decided that interesting probably wasn't the right word.

HR.

Later that night, as he lay in the bed in his new bedroom, Shinji stared up at the ceiling, replaying the short bit of the battle against the angel that he could remember. As he did so, he drifted off to sleep and started dreaming.

/Flashback/

Shinji could feel an intense flash of pain as the Angel attacked his EVA again, repeatedly smashing some sort of lance of light from its palm into his left eye. He was beginning to feel distant from it, as if he wasn't as closely connected as he had been. Suddenly, as a gauge with a rather ominous looking orange countdown timer plunged past the thirty second mark, a strange orange force field surrounded his EVA, causing the angel's next attack to stop cold.

In the NERV control room at central Dogma, Ritsuko sighed in relief. "The AT Field has manifested!" She reported.

"About time." Misato muttered, still looking apprehensively at the EVA unit. "Now, Shinji, fight back!"

The third child nodded woozily, his eye wanting to swell shut, however he knew that he had to move, or the angel would likely kill him. Struggling as he seemed to waver in and out of synchronization with every pulse of pain from the EVA's injuries, the young Ikari managed to move his undamaged arm upward, looking for something to strike with it.

As he saw the bright red ball in the middle of the Angel's chest, his eyes narrowed, and he lashed out, grasping it and beginning to squeeze, loosing a loud scream as he kept in synch in spite of the pain he felt.

"Hmm, that's odd." Came Hyuga's voice as his console beeped.

"What is it?" Ritsuko demanded, hoping that it wasn't bad news.

"I don't know, but a second blue pattern just showed up in the Infirmary and is showing a similar frequency to that of Unit 01." He replied, uncertainly.

"Ranma...?" Ritsuko muttered, too quietly for anyone else to hear, as Unit 01's hand was surrounded by a flickering blue glow, and the third angel's core gave a massive crack, before erupting in blinding white light.

Shinji gasped as a massive shock of pain rippled through his EVA before all of the power went off. He couldn't see through its eyes anymore, and the plug was completely dark. As he was beginning to panic he felt a huge tremor running through everything, before silence descended.

/End Flashback./

HR.

The next morning, Shinji woke to the sound of someone cursing. Rolling out of bed and putting on his clothes, he walked out of his room to see… a topless redhead walking down the hall, pulling a shirt over her head. His nose exploded in blood and he fell back into his room with an audible THUMP.

Ranma heard the noise and turned to the door of Shinji's room, seeing said boy passed out on the floor with a trail of blood flowing from his right nostril. Sighing, she picked him up, slung him over her shoulder and walked into the living room, putting him down on the couch.

"Pen-Pen got you again?" Misato asked, looking up from a NERV report at the kitchen table to see Ranma walking in.

"Yeah. Oh, and I think I broke Shinji." The redhead said, sheepishly.

"Broke Shinji?" Misato asked, looking past Ranma to see the aforementioned boy sprawled on the couch with a bloody nose. "Forgot he was here and came out of the bathroom without a shirt on?" She guessed, watching as Ranma walked over to the sink and splashed herself.

"Yeah." He muttered, sitting down across from her at the breakfast table after putting some rice on the stove.

Shinji woke up a few minutes later and sat down next to Ranma, looking away.

"Did you like the show?" Misato asked, taking a sip of her beer.

Shinji flushed a shade of red even brighter than Ranma's girl side's hair and mumbled something incoherent at the tabletop.

Shortly after Ranma and Shinji had eaten breakfast, Misato stopped them from walking out the door and said, "Ritsuko wants you two in for EVA testing today."

Ranma nodded and smiled while Shinji looked downcast. Seeing Shinji's expression, Ranma said, "Don't worry, sync tests definitely ain't like the battle you were in yesterday. Besides, if we can get out of a boring lecture on second Impact I'm all for it!"

Shinji nodded sullenly as Misato grabbed a set of keys off of a table by the door.

About Thirty minutes later, Ranma and Shinji were standing in front of EVA 01's test cage, playing rock, paper, scissors to see who would go through the testing first. Ranma saw clearly that Shinji was cheating, but since he was doing it to go second, unlike Misato's little trick the night before to insure that Shinji would do all of the chores that Ranma wasn't, he didn't call him on it.

After being lowered into the entry plug, Ranma waited through the insertion into the EVA and the filling with LCL until he was synchronized. Reaching out to sense the machine, he noted that its battle aura seemed a bit more agitated than usual.

"Um… Dr. Akagi?" Ranma asked.

Ritsuko's face appeared in the top left corner of his field of view, as Ranma had finally figured out how to see things inside the cockpit as he saw through the EVA's cameras.

"What did you guys do to Unit 01?"

"Do to it? What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked, looking to the EVA maintenance techs for an explanation.

"Well, she feels a bit off today." Ranma said.

Shinji, who was in the control room standing next to Misato, tugged on her arm and asked, "Why is he calling it a she?"

Misato looked back at Shinji and shrugged. "He's been doing it since his second Sync test. He says that the EVA's aura feels female, whatever that means. He also claims that it has emotions, but I don't get how that works."

"Hmm, it could be because of synchronizing with Shinji during the battle yesterday." Ritsuko said, pondering. She wasn't really sure about Ranma's ability to 'feel' the EVA units, but there was no use shooting herself in the foot if the pigtailed pilot could provide useful data.

"I don't know. It has something to do with the battle, yeah, but I don't think it was Shinji synchronizing."

Suddenly, Maya interrupted. "Ma'am. We've got increased activity in the Optic and Auditory Nerve Links."

As the tech said that, Ranma seemed to go still for a moment, his eyes glazing over. As they snapped back into focus, He shook his head slightly. "Gah, that was weird." He muttered, a series of images flashing through his mind.

"Are you all right, Ranma? Maybe we should pull you out of the plug for now." Ritsuko suggested, looking over Maya's shoulder to study the recent nerve link activity.

"Nah." Ranma said, still trying to sort out the images that the EVA had sent. "I can finish the test."

Maya and the other testing room techs looked up at Ritsuko in enquiry before the blonde nodded reluctantly. "All right, continue on." She said, as Ranma relaxed into his seat.

'So this is why you brought me here!' He heard Shinji's voice, followed by several incoherent murmurs. 'Bring out Rei… It is necessary.' His eyes widened, as the presence of Rei in the hospital corridor suddenly made a lot more sense. He was inclined to start getting angry at this, but reluctantly realized that he had been knocked out of action, and Shinji's willingness to pilot the EVA was in question.

If there was one thing he could say about Rei, it was that if Commander Ikari asked her to do something, she'd do it.

The images and sounds seemed to taper off as Shinji agreed to enter the entry plug, and a strange mixture of contentedness and worry washed over him.

"We're done Ranma." Came Maya's voice, causing the black haired boy to snap out of his thoughts for the moment.

"Oh, um… how'd I do?" He asked, distracted.

"Your sync rate has gone up by 5 points since your last test. We're reading you at a solid 63 percent." The woman said, cheerfully, as Unit 01's entry plug began the ejection and draining procedure.

Ranma simply nodded, as the plug's main hatch slid aside and he climbed out. "Looks like it's your turn, Shinji." He said, as he walked towards the entrance to the cages, where the rather nervous looking fourth child waited in his newly fitted white and blue plug suit.

"Gee, thanks." Shinji muttered, somewhat sarcastically, as he headed for the entry plug.

"Hey, where're you going?" Misato demanded, from her place next to the door, as Ranma walked off into the corridors of NERV.

"Goin to see Rei." He responded, shortly.

Misato grinned. "I wonder if he realizes that he's still wearing his plug suit?" She muttered, before shrugging and heading back to the test control room to monitor Shinji's sync test.

HR.

Rei looked up from reading a text book in her hospital room as she heard the sound of someone knocking at her door. "Come in." She said, looking surprised as she saw Ranma open the door, wearing a blue and black plug suit.

"Ranma-san?" She asked, putting the book down on a table at the side of the bed. "You usually come after classes are complete."

"Yeah." Ranma said, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, my sync tests were finished, so I figured I'd come and see you now."

"I was unaware that you were testing in an Evangelion." Rei said, softly. She'd known that he was being studied by NERV, however that had been the last thing she'd been told before entering hospital, and no one had bothered updating her since.

"Guess I forgot ta tell ya." He said, and then noticed the book that she'd been reading. "Weren't ya almost finished with that when I came to see ya a couple days ago?" He asked, pointing at it.

"I am reading it again." Rei responded, deadpan.

Ranma frowned. It must have been getting pretty boring around here for Rei to be rereading school textbooks, even if she did apparently enjoy reading them. "Well…" He said, awkwardly. "I just came ta make sure you're all right."

"Why were you concerned about that?" Rei asked, a small amount of curiosity present in her voice, if you knew how to listen for it.

"Well, I… I found out that you were being prepped to pilot the EVA, and I thought ya might have gotten hurt during the angel attack, so I wanted to make sure you were ok." Ranma said, stuttering slightly. "Look." He finally said, shaking his head. "I, erm, gotta go see how Shinji did on his test, okay?"

"Yes. Goodbye, Pilot Saotome." Rei simply said, as the martial artist turned and exited her room, not seeming to have noticed the change of address. For a moment, she wondered why his obvious nervousness during his last few comments made her feel slightly warm. If she didn't know better, she could have sworn that she had a fever.

END.

Okay, well, I promised it, so here's the special feature. The people I ran it past called it "Darkly Humorous,' which I find odd, because I was kinda serious when I wrote it, but oh well.

I'll put my begging for reviews here. Please R&R!

Special DVD Extra: In Memorium.

*Weebee is standing on a giant black floor, a podium in front of him, and several EVA Characters are arrayed around it.*

My friends, today we gather to celebrate the life and deeds of one of Evangelion's most unsung heroes. A Ma... Pers... Being, who strove every day of his life to make countless fanfics, video games and remakes possible, and went through an amazing amount of pain in the process.

I speak, of course, of Sachiel.

Even if Shinji has been replaced by Atsuko Natsume, and Unit 01 is a Gundam, you can be sure that when that first angel alarm rings, the angel of water will stomp his way through whatever city this fic happens to be set in, ready to do his part.

He goes into battle knowing that he has to fight, and almost definitely lose against, a giant purple and green manifestation of a mother's love, with a screaming teenager in the cockpit, in order to become its first kill. Honestly, I can't really think of a wussier way for a giant monster to go, but he does it, again and again, so that we may have our first angel battle, even if the rest of the fic is never written.

So let us salute that brave ma... per... being, and remember him always.

*Pan out from Weebee to reveal that he's standing on the lip of a gigantic coffin, the third angel laying inside, his arms crossed over his shattered core.*

On The Hedgehog's Spines

It appears we've got another two in one chapter, today. No special reason this time, it's just the two chapters that made this one up were both pretty short, so you get them both at once.

Anyhow, have fun!

Chapter 7, On The Hedgehog's Spines.

NERV HQ was quiet, the only sounds that could be heard being the tapping of the boots of the night shift. In one of the few offices that were still occupied at this late an hour, Gendo Ikari sat at his desk pondering the results of a meeting that he'd had this afternoon with the SEELE council.

He snorted. Perhaps 'meeting' was too strong a word as all they'd done was comment about how displeased they were with his actions for the better part of thirty minutes. He'd received quite a bit of flak for allowing Ranma to become a pilot against the order of their precious 'prophecy,' and they had then had the gall to criticize him for using Shinji as the EVA's pilot when the other two were injured.

"Fools," He grunted, putting his thoughts aside and picking up a work order. The disaster that had been the first angel battle, coupled with SEELE's vague sounding threats had made him extra cautious, and he began drafting a request to begin a certain set of modifications to EVA Unit 00.

HR.

The next morning Shinji was once again awoken by a female voice cursing. Deciding to play it safe this time, he waited a few minutes before walking out of his room. Proceeding into the kitchen, he regarded Ranma cautiously as he sat down next to her. He was still unused to Tokyo 3 in general, and Ranma's easy disregard of things that Shinji considered terrifying, not to mention the curse, made him slightly uneasy. Looking back up at Shinji, Ranma wordlessly pointed to a bowl on the other side of the table from her own before attacking her meal.

Misato came in a moment later, sitting at the head of the table between the two children. Shinji winced as she grabbed a can of beer, chugged it back and let out a loud whoop of joy, but Ranma seemed to just ignore it.

"So, Shinji-kun, are you ready to start school?" She asked, before taking the first bite of her rice.

Shinji nodded reluctantly before asking, "Do you have any school supplies for me? I left mine back at my teacher's place."

Misato shrugged while looking over at Ranma.

The martial artist grinned. "You can borrow some of mine for today. We can probably prod Misato into going to buy you some later. In the meantime, we'd better get going. We're gunna be late if we don't hurry and I don't wanna be stuck in the hall holding buckets." After saying this, Ranma got up from the table, having already finished her food, and went to the sink to change back to normal.

Shinji nodded before pushing his half finished noodles to the middle of the table and getting up, joining Ranma.

"Oh yeah." Misato said, perking up. "Commander Ikari asked me to make sure that both of you are carrying your cell phones, just in case of an angel attack."

Ranma grumbled, heading back into his room to pick the device up from his bedside. He'd never gotten used to carrying them, though he admitted that one may have been useful during the angel attack a few days before. Shinji merely held the black device up for inspection before slipping it into a pocket.

When Ranma returned with his phone, the two left the house on their way to school.

HR.

Later that day, Shinji sat in class and stared lethargically at the flat computer screen on his desk. The school he'd been in before this had been a couple of weeks ahead on the curriculum, so he could afford to ignore the class for the moment. Briefly, he looked across the room to where Ranma was sleeping on his desk and wondered if he was that far ahead, or that far behind.

A soft ping drew his attention back to his desk, where he saw that a message had come in over his terminal. He contemplated ignoring it, since he'd been getting a lot of questions from fellow classmates ever since they'd found out he was an EVA pilot, but sighed and opened it up. "Meet me at the back of the school after class." He read, and looked around in confusion to see a large boy next to Ranma looking directly at him. He just looked back, confused.

HR.

After class that day, Shinji went to the back of the school Gym as the note had requested, only to see the tall black haired boy who'd been glaring at him in class leaning against a wall. As he approached, the boy straightened up and began walking towards him. "So you're the one who piloted that Giant Robot a couple days ago?" He asked, seeming to fidget with his hands nervously. If Shinji had been more used to fighting, he would have recognized this gesture as the other boy cracking his knuckles.

"Um… yes." The fourth child said, looking around uncertainly.

After Shinji had said this, the other boy charged at him, landing a blow square across the jaw. Shinji's head jerked violently to the side, and he winced in pain. "Wh… what?" Shinji asked, stumbling back and rubbing at the place where he'd been hit.

"That's for what you did to my little sister!" The boy spat, walking towards Shinji as he cracked his knuckles again. Just as he was about to hit Shinji again, a stinging pain went down his arm and he found himself unable to move it. "wh…" he muttered, before feeling his shoulder grabbed and being spun around.

In front of Touji, Ranma looked at him levelly. "What are you doing?" he asked, still gripping his shoulder.

"R… Ranma? I was just…" Touji said, seeing the cold look in the other boy's eyes.

"Punching an innocent person for something he had no way of stopping?" Ranma asked, releasing his grip on Touji's shoulder.

"But my sister, he…" Touji protested, backing up.

"The boss stuck him into an EVA with NO training because Rei and I were both injured. You know how hard it is to control an EVA the first time out? It's a miracle he stopped the Angel at all, even if he did cause some damage in the process." Ranma said. Yes, it sounded pretty cold of him to say, but if the angel had been left to run through the city unchecked, it would have likely done a lot worse.

Touji glared for a moment, before his shoulders slumped. "Yeah, whatever," He muttered, before turning, stalking away from the others.

Just then, Kensuke walked up carrying his camera and affecting a faux Australian voice. "And here we see the elusive Giant Mecha pilots. Only on Kensuke Vision!"

Ranma groaned, slapping his hand to his forehead. "Man, turn that off!"

Kensuke laughed, flicking a button on the side of the recorder and dropping it to his side. "Hey guys. What's going on?" he asked, noticing that Shinji had a bloody lip. "Where's Touji? I saw him over here before."

Shinji just raised a hand to wipe away the blood, while Ranma sighed. "I'd stay clear of him for a while," he muttered.

"That bad, huh?" Kensuke asked, his previous good cheer dampened somewhat. "Well, I've always been good at annoying him without getting punched out, so I think I'll go talk to him."

"Okay," Ranma said, uncertainly. "If you think that's a good idea."

HR.

Touji sighed, letting his legs hang off of the side of the roof, where he'd retreated after his confrontation with Shinji. Kensuke had shown up to try and cheer him up a few minutes earlier, but he'd gone away after several minutes without a response, and left the larger boy to his thoughts.

"Maybe Saotome's right," He muttered, recalling Ranma's words about controlling the EVAs. He'd only seen one so far, and it had mostly fallen down and stayed on the ground while the Angel did its best to break through its armor.

Of course, that was stupid. It was almost impossible that Tokyo 3's only defense against the Angels could be piloted by someone who didn't even really know how to operate it, but the problem was, he had no reason to believe that Ranma was lying to him. "Did I just beat up an innocent kid?" He asked himself, looking up into the sky.

"Well Ikari, I'll lay off you for now," He snorted. Ranma had apparently decided to defend the little bastard, and he had no illusions about his ability to defeat the martial artist, but even without that, he was starting to feel a little guilty. Shinji had folded like rotten wood when he'd punched him.

"Damn it," The tall boy cursed, before standing and making his way back into the school building, on his way to see his sister in the hospital. As he did so, he noted that Ranma had leapt onto the building's roof and was rapidly vanishing into the distance. "Heh, probably going to see Rei," he chuckled, letting his dark thoughts lift for a moment.

HR.

Ranma ran through the halls of the hospital, nimbly dodging doctors and nurses. As this particular act had happened several times before, no one seemed to notice. Screeching to a stop in front of Rei's room, he knocked gently on the door. As always, the soft voice drifted out from the other side saying, "Come in."

Ranma opened the door and walked over to the chair next to the bed, sitting down in it.

"Hey Rei. How're ya doing?" he asked, setting his backpack down next to his chair.

The girl in the bed quirked her lips slightly, the closest thing to a smile that Ranma had ever seen out of her. "I am well. The doctors say that I can leave the hospital in nine days."

Ranma blinked. He still hadn't gotten used to the preciseness with which Rei delivered information. "That's good." He finally said. "Oh yeah, that reminds me of something."

Digging around in his pack, Ranma produced a sheaf of papers. "Here's your homework for the last few days." Rei took it and read it over as she always did, and the two spent the next twenty minutes in a study session for Ranma, thinly disguised as a study session for Rei.

After this, Ranma went digging in his pack again and came up with a tattered and yellowed scroll, tied with some fraying twine.

Rei looked at it, seeming to study every inch.

Ranma answered the un-asked question. "I figured you were getting bored with just reading the same books and doing school work, but I'm not really sure where to get some better reading material so I brought ya a meditation scroll. I'm not too good at it, but it helps pass the time and you might be better at doin it than me."

Rei reached a hand out and took the scroll from Ranma, setting it on a table next to her bed. "Thank you."

After a few seconds of companionable silence, Rei uncharacteristically decided to ask a question. "Why were you so concerned about me when you visited yesterday?"

Ranma sputtered for a moment, definitely caught off guard. "Rei… you could have been killed if you had been launched in the EVA!"

Rei blinked. "I am one of many. What would it matter? I can be replaced."

Ranma sat back in his chair, thoughts swirling through his mind and a shocked look on his face. What had NERV done to this girl? "You might be one of many, but you still matter." He said, looking Rei in the eyes. "I'd… We'd all miss you if you died."

"You would miss me? Why?" Rei asked, looking more confused than before.

"We… .um… just would, Okay!" Ranma sputtered, throwing up his hands. "You could be replaced but the replacement wouldn't be you. Ya know what I mean?"

Rei just looked blank, wondering why Ranma was so upset at this line of questioning.

Shaking his head, the pigtailed martial artist groaned and said, "Never mind." Before getting up from his chair and walking towards the door. "See ya tomorrow."

After Ranma had left the room, Rei stared at the door for a few moments, thoughts running rampant in her head. For a moment, a frown crossed her face. The last few questions she had asked had upset Ranma, and the answers they had produced were confusing.

It was unlikely that Ranma truly knew what she'd meant by being 'one of many,' and she'd truthfully only said it because she hadn't been thinking, but he'd sounded sincere when he'd said that he would miss her. True, he had immediately changed the wording to indicate a larger group, but that was an obvious and transparent attempt to cover a slip up.

Her interactions with Ranma were very confusing, yet informative. Solemnly, she decided that they would have to continue after she left the hospital, before curiously opening the scroll that Ranma had given her to read over.

HR.

Ritsuko looked at her monitor, cursing its results once again. This was getting to be a habit with her. This time, the data was from the first anti-angel battle. More specifically, the end of it. She watched as the EVA activated it's AT field, and Ranma's own seemed to immediately flare up in response. She had yet to fully figure out WHY Ranma had an AT field, and now it was interacting oddly with that of the EVA unit.

With a frustrated sigh, Ritsuko hit her hand against the side of the keyboard, accidentally hitting a button. Suddenly, the screen shifted to show any other occurrence of similar readings, as it was programmed to do when said button was pressed.

The screen jumped to an earlier scan of the third angel's own AT field as it rippled to repel the N2 mine strike, and Ritsuko gasped. Pulling up the two sets of readings, she ran a comparison program. Ranma's AT signature was definitely smaller and weaker, however it almost exactly matched that of the angel the EVA had been fighting, with the exception of a slight variance that she couldn't put her finger on.

HR.

The next day, the senior staff of NERV were having a meeting in the main conference room.

"How are the repairs to the Geofront from our first encounter with the angels proceeding?" Gendo asked, looking over at his second in command, Fuyutsuki.

"95 percent of the damage has been repaired." The latter man reported, looking over a clip board. "Repairs to Unit 01 have been completed, including the armor plating on the crushed arm, and the project to upgrade Unit 00 will be ready to begin shortly."

Gendo nodded in approval. "…and Rei?"

Ritsuko spoke up here. "She should be out of hospital in just over a week, but she will still be on limited duty for another two weeks after that."

Gendo nodded reluctantly, seeming to be displeased about it, but knowing that he couldn't magically increase human regeneration rates, even if he could wish that Rei healed as quickly as Ranma. Speaking of whom… "And our mysterious third child?"

Ritsuko sighed. "I'm afraid I've got some disturbing news about him, as well."

Gendo raised an eyebrow. "Disturbing?"

Ritsuko nodded. "You know how he generates a blue pattern? Well, I'm afraid that is indeed an Angel's AT field. He is an Angel."

The room fell into dead silence after this, until Misato broke it. "Th… that's impossible. Ranma can't be an angel." She stammered, her face going white.

"I'm afraid he is. Although he's a very good recreation of the human form." Ritsuko said, tapping a button that caused a screen at the end of the briefing room to show a set of converging graphs, not unlike those that indicated EVA and Pilot synchronization. "With the data we collected in the battle earlier this week, I was able to cross-reference his AT field pattern with the third angel's. They are a near perfect match."

"I see." Gendo said, no one really sure what he was actually thinking.

"So… if he's an angel, why hasn't he tried to destroy the Geofront by now?" Misato asked, trying to disprove Ritsuko's claim.

"My guess is that he was raised as a human. He was probably some sort of sleeper agent. They probably figured that we would let him into central Dogma's deepest areas and he'd cause third impact by accident… Either that or he was some sort of test from before second impact."

"So what do we do about it?" Misato asked, looking distressed.

"Keep him away from the restricted levels of the base." Ritsuko shrugged. "He's perfectly harmless as long as he doesn't get down there. I'd also keep him under closer watch, if that weren't impossible without him noticing."

Gendo sighed. "Understood doctor. If that is all for this meeting?" He asked, looking around the room. No one brought up any other issues, so he nodded. "Captain Katsuragi, I'd suggest you be more cautious around the third child for the time being and watch him."

Misato nodded, too stunned from the news she had received during this meeting to do anything more.

HR.

Ranma was frustrated. It seemed to him that, for the last few days, Misato had been acting uneasy around him. She kept throwing quick glances at him and looking away, a strange expression on her face.

Worse yet, she seemed to be getting a lot more drunk every night. Staggering in at midnight and not waking up until just before work in the morning, and running out in a mad dash without talking to him or Shinji. They had been getting to Sync tests and such by walking, as Misato was always either in a bar or at NERV.

Rei was supposed to be out of hospital in a couple days, but this didn't cheer Ranma as much as it should have. Resolving to do something about whatever was bothering Misato tonight if he could, he slung his pack over his shoulder and walked out of the house, Shinji following close behind.

Misato sat at the kitchen table, sighing in relief as Ranma and Shinji walked out of the room. Every time she looked at the pigtailed boy, she kept seeing an image of gigantic white wings stretching from a field of snow superimposed over his form.

Draining the remains of her can of beer, she grabbed her purse and walked out of the apartment towards NERV HQ.

HR.

Ritsuko Akagi looked over in concern at her best friend as she plodded through the halls at NERV. "Misato, are you sure you're all right?" She asked, for the third time today. Ever since that meeting a week ago, the strategic operations officer seemed out of sorts.

"I told you. I'm fine!" Misato snapped, causing the scientist to jerk back in surprise. "I'm sorry, Ritsuko. It's just… Damn it! I was starting to like that kid!" She burst out, before punching a nearby wall. If she had been a Neriman martial artist, the wall would have crumpled. As she was a normal person she just held her closed fist with her other hand, wincing in pain.

Ritsuko shrugged. "I assume you mean Ranma."

Misato looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "Of COURSE I mean Ranma! Who else could I mean? He was starting to be like a little brother or an annoying kid relative… and then I find out he's a goddamned Angel!"

Ritsuko nodded. She supposed that given Misato's background, the revelation of Ranma's status would likely hurt. "What the heck am I going to do?" The Katsuragi woman burst out, before Ritsuko could come up with a response.

The blonde shrugged. "Ignore it, I guess."

"Ignore it? Ritsuko. You know why I joined NERV. The only reason I'm here is to kill the angels. All of them."

Ritsuko put her hand on Misato's shoulder. "Do you hate a person who is distantly related to someone who hurt you? It's not his fault he's an Angel and he seems perfectly human to me. Just be careful, is all. The idea of killing the entirety of a race has been frowned upon ever since Hitler tried it."

"Are you comparing me to Hitler?" Misato asked, her voice incredulous.

"No. I'm just telling you not to judge one person by the actions of his people, whether in the past or present. After all, the second child is German." Ritsuko responded, walking off and giving Misato something to think about while she walked to her office.

HR - 2000, The Antarctic.

Little Misato looked on in amazement over her father's shoulder as the beautiful white light came cascading off of the wings of the being that was floating in the sky. It was obscured from her vision a moment later, as the badly wounded man who was carrying her staggered into a small warehouse where the expedition kept various surveying equipment.

"Hold on, Misato. I'm going to get you out of here," the man panted. Fumbling to open a hatch that was set into a small cylindrical object, Dr. Katsuragi lowered his daughter into it. Misato looked on, not comprehending, as he pressed a small cross shaped pendant into her hands. "Good luck," he muttered, closing the pod's hatch and activating a tiny electric motor that sent it off out of a water filled inlet that had been melted into the ice under the building by the huge amount of destruction that the research base had already been through.

As Misato floated away in the tiny pod, she seemed to see the image of a set of glowing white wings, as though it had been burnt into her retinas. That was, of course, until the shockwave hit.

HR – 2014, NERV HQ, Tokyo 3.

Misato's eyes snapped open as she sat at her desk, with numerous reports spread across the table in front of her. 'Just a dream.' She thought to herself, picking up the pencil that she had dropped when she had fallen asleep. She hadn't been getting enough sleep in the last week and she would occasionally find herself dozing off in the middle of doing something. Luckily, it hadn't happened while she was driving a car yet, however that was only a matter of time.

HR.

Ranma stood next to Rei's bed at the hospital, with one of his arms extended. He felt Rei's hand grabbing onto it and carefully helped her ease to her feet. "You all right?" He asked, as he easily supported half of her weight.

Rei nodded, before easing off of Ranma's arm and standing straight, only swaying a little bit. She had been stuck in a bed for two weeks and was naturally slightly dizzy. "I am fine Ranma." She said, as the two of them walked from her room.

After a few minutes of Random wandering, Rei's stomach growled and Ranma's followed closely after. "So, ya wanna go to the cafeteria and get something to eat?" He asked, leading her down the hall.

"That would be agreeable." Rei said, as she leaned against Ranma's shoulder for a breather. Or at least, that's what she told herself.

The meditation techniques that Rei had been learning from the scroll that Ranma had given her seemed to be having a rather strange effect on her. Since she had to think about and balance her state of mind constantly while doing them, she became more aware of and expressive with her emotions. She was still a very reserved person but there was a marked change from her attitude of the week before.

As the two walked down to the NERV cafeteria, they met up with Dr. Akagi. "Hello Rei, Ranma." She said, as she fell in beside the two slow moving teens and matched their speed.

"Hey doc." Ranma responded, as Rei just nodded towards the older woman.

"It's nice to see you up and around, Rei." Ritsuko said, regarding the closeness between the two pilots with some private amusement.

"I am feeling well Akagi-san. Are you certain that I cannot go home today instead of in two days?" Rei enquired.

Ritsuko laughed. "I'm sorry Rei. We've got to make sure that it's safe to send you home before we let you out of here. Besides, if you left the hospital Ranma wouldn't come to visit you all the time."

Rei's cheeks became slightly pink at this, surprising Ritsuko. Ranma's stammered denials, of course, went unnoticed by either woman.

Ritsuko turned off a few corridors away from Ranma and Rei's destination, saying something about running tests on EVA unit 01.

As the two turned the corner to enter the Cafeteria, they saw Gendo sitting at a corner table, nursing a cup of coffee. After getting a small plate of rice for Rei and a rather larger one with some meat on it for Ranma, the two began looking for a table. At a slight tugging from Rei, Ranma reluctantly walked over to the table where Gendo was sitting and sat across from him. "Hey boss." He said, as Rei took a seat next to him.

"Mr. Saotome." Gendo responded, looking up from his coffee. "What brings you here?"

Ranma shrugged. "Rei was allowed to get out of bed today, and I figured I'd take her to the Cafeteria and buy her dinner to celebrate."

Rei spoke up at this. "You are purchasing this meal?" She asked, blinking at Ranma.

"Yeah." Ranma responded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet. "NERV pays me pretty well for sitting in a pool of LCL for three hours a day."

Rei giggled a little at this, and a very slight tightening of the jaw was even given by Gendo.

"You do realize that you will be doing a lot more than that when the next angel attacks." The older man commented, taking another sip of his coffee.

Ranma nodded. "I ain't missin the next fight for some lame head injury." He said, adamantly.

Gendo nodded slightly. "That is good to hear. It would be unfortunate if we had to resort to using the fourth child in Unit 01 again before he is trained, so hopefully you will not be injured before the next angel attack, Mr. Saotome."

Ranma laughed and scratched the back of his head, nervously. "Yeah, sorry but I really couldn't have predicted the car crashing." He said, before frowning slightly. "But Rei's still pretty badly hurt, so I hope you ain't plannin on sending her out soon."

Gendo wanted to chastise the third child for getting involved in a decision that didn't involve him, but was caught short by his steady intent stare, very much unlike the happy and slightly embarrassed look he'd worn before. "We... will keep that in mind." He said, uncomfortably, before standing and leaving the table. It wasn't because of the third child's intent glare, of course. He just needed to get some things done.

Rei noted the interplay between the two males, but didn't comment on it.

After Ranma and Rei had finished their meals, the pigtailed boy helped the pale girl back to her room and took off for home. Something told him that this wasn't going to be pleasant.

HR.

Misato staggered into the apartment, putting her purse on the table next to the door, or at least trying. The purse missed the table by about two feet and ended up on the shoe mat next to it. Cursing, Misato just ignored the mistake and walked into the living room, slumping onto the couch. There was something wrong with it. It was a bit too lumpy, and moving slowly up and down. With the logic and reasoning of the truly inebriated, she decided that she could beat it into flatness and punched at one of the lumps.

"Ouch!" Ranma protested, as he lifted Misato off of him.

"Huh?" Misato muttered, looking sleepily down at the person who she had laid on. "Woops…" She said, before realizing who it was and jumping back a few feet, falling to the ground.

In Misato's eyes, Ranma's body was superimposed with that of the first angel, hovering over an Antarctic snowfield. "Ge… get away!" She stammered, as she backed away from the apparition before her.

Ranma sighed before slumping back on the couch. "Misato, what did I do?" he asked, his voice slightly hurt. "Why are you afraid of me?"

"You're an Angel." Misato responded, her tone flat and seemingly emotionless. "I hate Angels."

Ranma sighed. "Look Misato. I ain't an Angel. I'm as human as you are. Just 'cuz I got some weird abilities doesn't mean I'm evil."

Misato shook her head adamantly, her voice slurring as it got more enthusiastic. "No! you're an angle… Suko said you were an angle. She had proof. Said jus ta ignore it… treat ya like I always do… but you're an angle… I… hate…" After this rather hard to understand statement, Misato began to sob.

Ranma blinked. He really was an angel? He had assumed that his martial arts ability and curse had just convinced NERV of something that wasn't true. He'd have to ask Dr. Akagi about this 'proof' later, but for now at least, for safety's sake he'd have to assume it was true. "Look Misato. So what if I'm an angel. I'm a girl half the time, right? Does that mean that when I change I suddenly start asking you to borrow makeup? I just gotta be really careful around NERV HQ, that's all. Ya know I won't hurt you or anyone else."

Walking forward, Ranma wrapped his arms around Misato's shaking shoulders in a rather lame attempt at a hug. Looking up into his eyes, Misato saw nothing but concern… and no image of white wings over snow. Giving into an urge which Ranma had indulged in two weeks before, Misato collapsed into his arms, taking comfort in the small boy's warmth.

A few minutes later, Shinji walked into the room, turning on the lights. "Hey Guys, what's all the noise?" His voice trailed off as he saw Ranma and Misato in what looked like an intimate hug. "Er… I'll come back later. I… I'm sorry." He said, as he walked out of the room backwards, making warding signs in the air with his hands.

Ranma began to chuckle as Shinji walked out of the room. "I suppose saying that it ain't what it looks like wouldn't do me any good, would it?"

Misato giggled as she got up, her drunken status shown by her swaying gate as she walked to her room. "Don't worry about it Ranma. I'll explain it to him tomorrow."

HR.

The next morning, Ranma sat in the kitchen clutching her head, after a few seconds of bashing it against the table furiously.

"… and Ranma and I have been lovers ever since." Misato said, "Explaining" it to Shinji.

At his dumb struck expression, she fell out of the chair laughing.

Growling, Ranma picked up her bag, got some hot water and stomped out of the house.

HR.

As Shinji and Ranma walked to school, the former kept throwing strange looks at the latter until Ranma finally snapped, a few feet from the gate of the building. "I'm tellin you Shinji. Me 'n Misato ain't lovers!" He yelled, before turning to see Touji and Kensuke standing at the gate, Kensuke holding a video camera and Touji's jaw on the ground.

"Can this day get any worse?" Ranma muttered, five seconds before it started to rain.

END.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review telling me how I did!

First Sortie

Chapter 8, First Sortie.

Ranma sat in class, bored as usual. No, even more than usual. The teacher seemed to talk about second impact and nothing else. Stifling a yawn, he looked longingly at a clock on the wall which was painfully slowly counting off the time until lunch, and then at Rei who was sitting at a window seat. She had been released from hospital two weeks ago and, other than a flurry of Sync tests for Ranma and Shinji, nothing much had happened since.

He'd give anything for a distraction from this boredom!

HR.

Meanwhile, somewhere over central Asia, a being moved. It could sense its target in the distance, and it was moving towards it at best possible speed. It had no real knowledge or understanding of Human cities, and as such paid the cities and towns it past no mind, not noticing the small reconnaissance plane that spotted it and headed back to it's base to report it's findings.

HR.

As Ranma stretched, cracking his back during third period, he watched intently as the hands on the clock crept ever so slowly towards lunch time. '5, 4, 3, 2, and… 1!' He thought, as the school bell rang, signifying the beginning of every student's favorite time of the day.

Forcing himself to stop before he charged out of the room with the rest of the throng of students, Ranma fell into step next to Rei, who was moving far too slowly in his opinion.

"Hey Rei." He said, looking over at the pale skinned girl.

"Hello Ranma." She responded, transferring her lunch bag from one hand to another. The visible signs of her injuries were almost gone by this point, only consisting of a few bandages along the sides of her arms and one or two on her head.

As the two walked out of the school, neither spoke, as was usual. Rei was just not a very outspoken person, and Ranma didn't really have much to say.

When the two sat down by a tree in the school yard, Ranma dug his pre-made lunch out of his pack, cracking open his chopsticks to eat it, and took a decent look at Rei's meal. All that was there was a small plate of rice, some vegetables and a drink.

"You don't got much in that lunch of yours." Ranma commented, digging around in his own bag. Pulling out a small slice of pork and some of his own rice, he offered them to Rei.

Rei took the rice but shook her head at the pork. "I do not care for meat." She said, before beginning to eat.

About half way through the meal, Ranma and Rei's cell phones rang. Reaching into his pocket, Ranma pulled out his phone as Rei reached into a pocket on the front of her school dress.

"Hello?" Ranma asked, after tapping the talk button on his cell phone.

"Saotome-kun? This is Maya from Central Dogma. We have detected an angel and are recalling all pilots." Came a pleasant, though audibly tense, female voice on the other end of the line.

"Got it." Ranma said, tapping the talk button again and slipping his phone into his pocket.

Rei put hers away shortly afterwards, having apparently received the same message.

Ranma jumped to his feet. "Could ya go tell Shinji about the attack? He never takes his phone anywhere, for some reason."

Rei nodded, rising to her feet and running off to the part of the school yard where Shinji, Touji and Kensuke were eating lunch. Ranma hopped to the wall of the school, running off towards NERV HQ.

HR.

Shinji ate his lunch slowly, very glad that Misato hadn't made it. He had experienced her… unique style of cooking before, and didn't really want to again.

"Hey Shinji." Kensuke said, looking over the top of his bento. "Do you know where Ranma went?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know. I think I saw him leaving the classroom with Rei earlier."

"Jeez." Touji complained. "First Misato and now Rei? That guy's gotta learn to share the wealth."

"He told us that what I heard from Misato wasn't true." Shinji protested, taking another bite of his rice.

"Yeah. And you believe him?" Touji asked, with a derisive snort at the shorter boy's naivety.

"Ikari-san?" Came Rei's voice, from directly behind Touji. The tall black haired boy almost leapt five feet from a sitting start, while Shinji stifled a grin, knowing that he shouldn't laugh, as he was still apparently on shaky ground with the other student.

"Yes? What's wrong?" He asked, after Touji had returned to the ground.

"NERV has contacted me. There was an angel detected earlier today." Rei said having missed what had just happened.

Shinji nodded sullenly, all of the amusement leaving his face, as he got up from his position next to Kensuke and followed Rei out of the school yard.

HR.

Ranma hopped from one roof to another, headed for the Geofront and NERV. As luck would have it, she had passed through one of those inexplicable rain clouds that seemed to lay in wait for Jusenkyo cursed people and was currently in female form. As she skidded to a stop in front of NERV HQ and swiped her card through the reader, she was given more than a few strange looks because the face on the card didn't match her at all. Fortunately, the men at the gate had been briefed about her and let her through.

As she ran through the halls to Central Dogma, Ranma dodged past several technicians who were doing their jobs before arriving at the Control room.

"Hey boss." She said, walking into the room and panting a little. "Pilot Saotome reporting for duty."

Fuyutsuki, who was the ranking officer in the room at the moment, turned to her. "Good to see you Mr… er… Miss Saotome. Please go and get suited up."

Ranma nodded, running off to the Pilots' changing room and grabbing a plug suit that had been made for her female form, as she couldn't be bothered to hunt up any hot water.

HR.

After suiting up, Ranma walked into the EVA cage storage area and was loaded into an entry plug. The hatch was sealed, and the screen at the front of the plug flickered on, showing the face of Misato, who looked out of breath, almost as if she'd just run into Central Dogma. "All right Ranma. Are you ready? This is your first sortie in an EVA and we can wait for Shinji to get here and do it if you want."

Ranma shook her head. "You know me Misato. Always ready for a fight."

Misato nodded reluctantly and turned to Ritsuko in the background. "Do it."

Ritsuko could be heard acknowledging before Ranma felt the entry plug shudder as it slid into place, followed by the normal sensation of the LCL flowing into it and over her plug suit clad form. Seconds after the LCL reached the plug's top and the Technicolor light show of synchronization was complete, she began sensing through the EVA's own senses.

"Okay, I think I'm ready." She breathed, subconsciously gripping the two control levers on either side of her chair in slight apprehension.

HR.

As Ranma's EVA was moved into position in the catapult, her pulse pounded in her ears as it always did before a major battle. EVA 01 seemed to be a little less excited, however she responded fluidly to the few movements Ranma could make while still restrained, and didn't feel nearly as angry as she had during the test after the first Angel battle, something Ranma thought was probably a good sign.

. As Ranma mentally prepared for the battle ahead, she heard the Central Dogma control crew running through final confirmations of status. Then Misato's voice came through her speakers as clear as day. "EVA launch!"

HR.

Shinji ran into the control room as one of the main screens was displaying EVA 01 flying up through it's launch shaft. "What… who's piloting the EVA?" He asked, looking towards Misato.

"Ranma." She responded, watching the screen carefully as it switched to a view of the city proper. Shinji couldn't help but feel a surge of relief at this. His first battle in an EVA was more than enough for the rest of his life.

HR.

Kensuke sighed as he sat on a bench, staring at a blank TV screen. "Aw man! They're not gunna show us any of the battle." He complained, fiddling with the Camera in his hands.

"So?" Touji asked, sitting beside him and looking bored. "They'll probably show the feed on the news tonight."

"After it's been censored." Kensuke complained, thumping his fist on the bench next to him.

"Aida, Quiet down over there!" Hikari barked, more than a little like a military commander.

"Yes Ma'am!" Kensuke yelled back, shifting in his seat.

"So what does it matter if it's censored?" Touji asked, continuing on as if Hikari's interruption hadn't happened.

"We won't get the true experience." Kensuke complained, almost striking a heroic pose before remembering that Hikari would kill him if he did. "One of our friends is out there, Piloting a gigantic robot to protect the city and us, and as his friends we must go and cheer him on!"

"Go and see the Mecha, you mean." Touji responded, drolly.

"Of course." Kensuke said, brightly, before realizing his mistake and clamping a hand over his mouth.

Touji shook his head slightly before seeing the pitiful expression on Kensuke's face and sighing. "Fine. I'll help you sneak out of here, but we aren't getting closer to that thing than we have to."

Kensuke's face exploded into a big happy grin.

HR.

Ranma grimaced as the angel lashed out with its whip like tentacles, hitting her EVA across the shoulder. The beast looked like a gigantic mushroom, with two very long energy tentacles curling out of the bottom of its head. She was currently trying to go at it hand to hand, however it wasn't really working very well.

She grimaced again as another tentacle slammed into her arm, sending a fiery trail of pain down it. Getting fed up with being pounded on Ranma concentrated and spread her shield out around herself, noticing that the angel's tentacles were stopped cold by it and that it seemed to neutralize its own protective barrier. Grinning in triumph, Ranma ran forward and swung her machine's fist in towards the angel, sending it catapulting across the city. Unfortunately, the angel's tentacle cut EVA 01's power cable as it went by.

'Oh shit…' Ranma thought, looking at the five minute timer that appeared in front of her. Quickly following the angel in its flight across the city, Ranma found it near the edge. Deciding not to risk close quarters combat with it again, she searched the area and walked towards a building with a NERV marking on it. Quickly recalling the map she had been shown of weapons cache locations, she opened a comm. link to NERV HQ.

"This is Ranma. Please open Cache 24." She asked, before the building slid back to reveal an EVA sized machine gun. Grabbing it, Ranma used it to shoot the angel, after neutralizing it's AT field.

HR.

Kensuke and Touji walked up the steps of a temple at the edge of Tokyo three, Kensuke seeming very excited and Touji very bored. "We're gunna see the EVA!" Kensuke yelled, for what seemed like the fourth time in as many seconds.

"What are you, Five?" Touji said, glaring at his friend.

"Sorry…" Kensuke muttered, sweat dropping.

As the two boys crested the hill, they saw a huge Mecha facing off against some mushroom shaped monstrosity. Touji recognized it from his experiences in the first angel attack. "That's the machine Shinji pilots." He breathed, as he witnessed the EVA emptying a machinegun into the angel's form. Unfortunately, the angel seemed unaffected by the machinegun fire, as one of it's two tentacles lashed out and smashed into the EVA, sending it crashing into the hill where the two boys stood.

HR.

Ranma gasped as she felt a slicing pain along both legs, before she flew backwards into a large heavy object. As she flew, the gun she had been holding fell from her EVA's flailing arms, landing nearby. Groaning, she pulled up the timer on her display, cursing as it said that she only had two minutes of battery power remaining.

Pulling herself to her feet, Ranma saw a flash of something on the hill but ignored it, lunging at the angel again. Yelling, "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" She rained punches onto the angel, but seemed to have no effect on it. It's seemingly elastic skin just absorbed the impact, making it feel like Ranma was punching a gigantic water balloon.

As Ranma was thrown back by another attack of the angel, her head turned enough to see the two boys who were standing on the hill behind her, seemingly petrified with fear.

'Kensuke, Touji?' She thought, before putting up her AT field to protect herself and the two boys while she tried to come up with something to do.

HR.

Misato looked confused. "Why is unit 01 not moving?" She wondered, staring at the battle. Ranma was doing a little better than Shinji had during his first battle, however the fact that she had just stopped in the middle of a fight was a rather major point against her.

"Ma'am!" Maya spoke up from the back of the room. "There are two civilians in the battle zone."

"What!" Misato asked, whipping around to face Maya.

"Two of Miss Saotome's class mates are in the battle zone, quite close to Unit 01. I believe that she is afraid of moving in case the angel hits them."

"Damn!" The purple haired woman cursed, slamming her fist against the arm of her chair.

"Captain!" Hyuga reported, from the front of the room. "Unit 01 is running low on power. Only 1:30 left."

Misato grinned, thinking of something. "Tell Ranma to eject the plug and let the civilians in."

"Let them in? But that's a violation of…" Ritsuko started.

"I don't care." Misato said, cutting her off. "Ranma isn't going to move until those two are out of the area, and her power supply won't last that long. Send the order NOW on my authorization as Chief Operations officer."

Maya nodded as Ritsuko looked at Misato worriedly.

HR.

"Let them into the plug?" Ranma asked, looking at Maya in surprise.

"That's what Captain Katsuragi says." Maya responded, looking just as confused as Ranma.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, if Misato thinks it's a good idea…" She muttered, before mentally ordering unit 01 to partially eject the entry plug. As this happened, Ranma's connection with the Mecha seemed to dim slightly, and she opened the hatch.

HR.

Kensuke looked on in fear as The angel battered at the force field that the EVA seemed to be producing. "How long do you think Shinji can keep that up, Touji?" He wondered, turning to his friend.

"I don't know." Touji responded, looking worriedly at the EVA. Just then, a cylindrical device seemed to slide out of the Machine's neck, a hatch on the side opening and letting out a stream of liquid. A red topped head poked out of the cylinder, and it was definitely not Shinji's. "Hey guys!" Ranma yelled, waving the two over. "Get over here!"

Touji and Kensuke ran over, looking a little confused. "Ranma? You're piloting the Mecha? I thought that was Shinji's job." Kensuke asked, blinking at the short redhead in front of him.

"There's no time for that right now." Ranma snapped, looking into a screen in the cockpit where the number 40 was the only thing visible. "I don't have much time until the EVA's battery runs out. Now get in!"

The two boys wasted no more time on conversation as they climbed into the entry plug and the hatch closed, the plug sliding back into the neck of the EVA.

As Ranma's awareness slipped back into the EVA, she could dimly hear Kensuke protesting about the water ruining his camera, but ignored it.

As she let down her AT field, the angel drifted over to her, seeming to gloat over top of the EVA's fallen form. As it did so, Ranma caught sight of a glowing reddish object lodged at the base of it's head. 'That must be the core that Ritsuko san told me about a while ago.

/Flashback/

"And the core of an angel is its most important section. It provides the angel with power. If you can hit it there enough times to destroy it, it will die."

/End Flashback/

"Hit it there and it dies…" Ranma muttered, reaching for the progressive knife in the EVA's shoulder pylon. In the middle of her swing, one of the angel's energy whips cracked across the back of her EVA's hand, causing the weapon to fly out over the city. "Damn!" She cursed, before desperately looking around for something to hit the core with. Spotting the pallet rifle that she'd lost earlier behind the angel, she shoved off of the hill with her hands, slid under the angel's belly and rolled into the outskirts of the city. Scooping the rifle up in one arm, she pulled the trigger as it swung in a wide arc over the angel's body.

Luckily for the EVA's pilot, the Angel was too close and surprised to raise it's AT field, and the artillery sized rounds of high explosive armor piercing amunition started scoring hits against its core, cracking it wide open, and killing the angel.

Sighing in relief, Ranma let her gun arm fall to her side as the EVA's power countdown hit zero, and it collapsed in an unmoving heap.

HR.

Ranma sat in the rear section of the dark entry plug, Kensuke and Touji cramped in with her. "Touji. Remove your hand from there or I'll remove it for ya!" She growled, causing the aforementioned boy to jerk his hand back from its resting position. The reason for this rather uncomfortable seating arrangement was that the EVA had fallen backwards when the power shut down, and the redhead had gotten tired of the blood rushing to her head.

"S…sorry Ranma." Touji stammered, trying to adjust his position so that he wasn't touching the angry girl.

"So Ranma." Kensuke said, looking around the inside of the plug.

"Yeah?" Ranma answered.

"How long do you think we're going to be in here?"

"I dunno. Probably 'till Ritsuko can get the EVA hooked up to a power supply. I could hit the emergency plug eject system, but it'd slam us into the ground and I don't think either of ya want that. I just wish the pain from the battle'd go away."

Kensuke looked worried at the mention of being smashed into the ground, before Ranma's second comment caught his attention. "Pain?" He asked, curiously. Pain had definitely not been one of the things he'd associated with being an EVA pilot.

"Yeah. When you're synchronized with an EVA, you feel what it does, but I lost synchronization when the power went off, and the cuts the angel gave me still hurt like hell."

Kensuke squinted, studying what he could see of Ranma's face in the darkness of the entry plug. "I don't suppose there was one across your forehead, right above your right eye?" He asked, pointing at the location on her face.

"Um… yeah. How'd you know?" Ranma answered, looking at him in confusion.

"It's right there." Kensuke responded.

Ranma tentatively moved her hand up to her forehead, touching the spot where she could feel the pain. Wincing, she pulled back with her fingertips covered in blood. "Oh great." She muttered, before sighing and leaning back against the side wall of the plug.

HR.

Dr. Akagi stood at the location of the EVA battle, with Misato, Rei and Shinji next to her. "Hmm, this is an almost complete specimen of an angel. If it weren't for the bullet holes and the destroyed core it'd be perfect."

"Is that a good thing?" Shinji asked, as he watched several medium sized trucks move into place around Unit 01.

Ritsuko laughed. "Yes, Shinji-kun. It's a good thing. This specimen could help us learn more about how the angels work, and how to defeat them." After saying this, the scientist walked over to a maintenance technician who was standing next to one of the trucks, with a very long cord trailing from it and into a building in the near distance. Giving the tech orders to hook the cord to a port near the base of the EVA's shoulder pylon, she then walked over to the angel's corpse.

Misato looked around the area. "Wow. This battle didn't cause nearly as much property damage as the first. The Geofront is in a lot better shape this time around."

Shinji, however had different ideas. 'The battles do less damage when I'm not piloting the EVA.' He thought, but didn't give voice to his suspicion.

Rei just stood silent.

HR.

Ranma sighed in relief as indicator lights and displays in the entry plug flickered on. "Good. We've finally got power back." She said, as she moved back into her seat to resume control.

"Can you hear me, Ranma?" came Misato's voice through the EVA's comm. system.

"Yeah, loud and clear." The EVA pilot responded, as the unit rotated its head to look for the operations officer.

"Move the EVA into field maintenance position so that we can evacuate the civilians and get you hooked up to a proper power supply, please." Misato ordered.

"Right." Ranma replied, nodding, even though Misato probably couldn't see her. "Okay guys, the EVA's gunna start movin in a second so you should probably get prepared." She said, looking over her shoulder. Behind her, Touji and Kensuke gulped nervously as they gained handholds for when the plug became horizontal again.

HR.

Misato smiled as the portable scaffold slid up to the base of the kneeling EVA's neck, allowing several workmen access to its back. "All right, you can pop the entry plug now." She said, talking into a small, walkie-talky like device that she'd produced from her uniform pocket moments before. There was no response, but the EVA's neck armor immediately slid up, allowing its entry plug to slide out.

Moments later, two rather shell-shocked looking fourteen year old boys were carried down the scaffold by medical technicians.

After the children were clear, a large vehicle drove up with an umbilical cord that it inserted into Unit 01's port. Misato waited for the team and scaffold to get clear before speaking into the small radio again. "All right, Ranma. You're on main power again, so please return the EVA to the nearest retrieval point."

"Okay, got'cha." Ranma said, though her voice now had an odd tension in it, as though she were holding back an outburst.

"Are you all right?" Misato asked, concerned.

"Yeah, fine." Ranma replied, shortly, before Unit 01 heaved itself to its feet and started stomping towards a retrieval point.

HR.

After the EVA had been docked back at its cage in Central Dogma, Ranma ejected her entry plug again and jumped down from it to the ground, almost immediately falling on her face.

Rei and Misato, who had just arrived via transport, ran over to her and tried to help her to her feet.

"Ranma? What's wrong?" Misato asked, looking in concern at the girl.

"Well, the angel got me pretty good in the knees about half way through the battle. I don't think I can walk on 'em for a while." Ranma said, wincing.

"The angel got you?" Misato asked, before noticing the few visible cuts along Ranma's face, neck and hands. "What the hell happened to you? Medic!" She yelled, and a group of NERV medical personnel ran into the room, putting Ranma on a stretcher and wheeling her off.

HR.

Later that day, Ranma was laying on an examination table in nothing but a paper dressing gown. She couldn't seem to get her hands on any hot water, and was still female. Ritsuko was studying her intently from top to bottom.

"Hmm… this is interesting." Ritsuko muttered, taking notes on a clipboard.

"Not to spoil your fun doc, but what's so interesting?" Ranma asked, shifting uncomfortably on the table.

Ritsuko put down her clipboard and began to answer Ranma's question. "Well Ranma. It seems that you have an extremely high sympathetic response to your EVA."

"Can you repeat that in Japanese?" Ranma asked, her face scrunching up into a thoroughly confused expression.

Ritsuko laughed. "Well, that means that due to your high sync rate your body is literally receiving the exact same injuries as your machine. All of your injuries correspond to areas on the EVA which were damaged by the Angel. Something else that's odd is that you seem to be able to automatically repair yourself and the EVA while you are in its entry plug."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"Well. You see this here?" Ritsuko asked, lifting up Ranma's left arm where an angry red welt was visible. "That used to be a cut, but you healed it. You have a truly remarkable regeneration ability. Anyways, the part of the EVA that that part of your arm corresponds to was also healed. There is only a scar under the torn up armor there, but the battle records show that the EVA sustained a deep cut."

"Weird." Ranma commented, before dismissing most of the information from her head, as she hadn't understood half of it.

"Well doc. Can I go now?" She asked, after an extra few minutes of poking and prodding. Looking down at her paper gown covered body, she amended that statement. "Erm, and can I get some clothes, first?"

Ritsuko reluctantly nodded, worried about the fact that wounds that should have needed stitches were just bandaged, but Ranma had explained how stitches didn't really agree with her curse and Ritsuko was forced to agree after seeing it in action.

HR.

Kensuke Aida walked into his house, kicking off his LCL soaked shoes. Seeing that his father was home, mostly due to his NERV jacket having been hung on the coat rack next to the door, he charged into the living room. "Hey dad!" he yelled, catching sight of the older man sitting on a couch in front of the television.

His father lowered his newspaper and looked at his son in curiosity. "Hi Kensuke." He said, before noticing that his son's clothing was soaked and his hair was plastered to his head. "What happened to you?" He asked, worriedly.

Kensuke held up his water soaked, but still barely functional, camera in his hands. "I got to get into an EVA today!" he said, bouncing up and down.

Kensuke's father dropped his paper. "What?" He asked, looking intensely at his son.

"Well, Ranma was fighting the angel and me 'n Touji snuck out of the shelter to see it and the EVA landed next to us on the hill and.." Kensuke was cut off as his father raised a finger to stop him.

"Did you say Ranma?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"yeah. Ranma Saotome. He's one of my class mates. why?"

Kensuke's father stood from the couch and walked over to the window of the room. 'Is it possible that someone else survived?' he wondered, staring out the window at the city outside.

"Hey dad?" Kensuke said, walking up to his father.

"Kensuke. This is going to sound weird, but does Ranma have any… strange abilities?"

"Well, yeah. He's a real good martial artist and he can jump really high." Kensuke explained. He left out the part about the curse, since no one outside of school believed anyone who talked about it.

"Does he have a fear of water, or has he told you about a curse?" Kensuke's father asked, looking at him intensely.

"h… how?" Kensuke stammered, stunned.

Kensuke's father just smiled. "So someone did make it out." With that, Daisuke Aida walked out of his living room, wondering how Ranma had gotten himself into THIS mess.

Kensuke just shrugged. "First Touji gets all quiet and now this?" He muttered, before walking up to his room in order to download the video in his camera onto his computer and change clothes.

HR.

Shinji watched as Ranma, back to male form, limped out of DR. Akagi's examination room, heavily favoring his right leg. Many bandages could be seen all over his body, and bulges could be seen under his clothes.

Ranma had, apparently, managed to pilot Unit 01 back to its cage while ripped almost to shreds, and Shinji wasn't sure that he could do the same. No, he was sure that he couldn't do the same. Briefly, he thought about how much it had hurt when the third angel had broken Unit 01's arm, wincing at the phantom twinges the memory still evoked. 'Why did father ask me to come here?' He thought. His next thought was much more disconcerting. 'Is that what the EVA will do to me eventually?' Trying to dismiss that line of thinking, he distracted himself by going over to offer Ranma help.

"Thanks." Ranma said, using Shinji's arm to help stabilize himself as he walked. "I haven't been this badly banged up since my fights with Ryoga."

Shinji just shrugged. "No problem. You saved me from that beating. This is the least I could do."

Ranma laughed. "I'm sure you'd have done just as good. Don't worry about it."

Shinji shook his head. "You didn't see my first fight." He muttered, as the two of them walked down a hall to the outside of NERV. As they walked, Rei came up and fell into step with them.

"How are you feeling, Ranma?" She asked, as she looked over the boy's injuries.

"I'm fine Rei." Ranma responded, before laughing. "That's supposed to be my line."

"I am sorry for taking your role." Rei said, in such a serious voice that it took Ranma a moment to realize that she was joking. Wait a second…

"Rei, that was a joke!" Ranma exclaimed, looking at her in astonishment.

"It was?" Rei asked, looking at him confusedly.

"Well, not a really funny one, but for the first one I've ever heard you make, it was pretty good." Ranma said, grinning at her.

Rei smiled back faintly, more confused than anything else, but glad that Ranma was happy... for whatever reason.

Shinji looked at the interaction between the two and wondered why Ranma thought Rei telling a joke was such a big deal, especially since it was apparently an accident. Had she really been that emotionally repressed? She seemed like a very reserved girl, but she didn't seem all that bad. Dismissing it as he saw Misato coming, Shinji let Ranma know this and the two headed towards Misato's car. Rei looked after them for a brief moment, before turning back to the halls of the building and walking off.

HR.

That night, Ritsuko stood looking at EVA unit 01. A look of deep concern was on her face. 'Damn it Yui, what are you doing to that poor kid?' She thought, her look turning into a glare at the machine.

What she hadn't told Ranma that day, and what she wouldn't tell anyone, was that the genetic structure of the re-grown cells from her healed wounds contained a different genetic code than her own. It matched the code of one Yui Ikari, deceased in 2004. Sighing, Ritsuko looked at the portions of the EVA where it had been damaged during the battle. Every wound seemed to show signs of self repair, something that was supposed to be impossible without an S2 organ.

As she stared at the EVA in front of her, Ritsuko didn't notice the tapping of feet behind her until Gendo cleared his throat.

Spinning around, she saw the older man standing behind her, looking up at the machine. "Is there a problem, doctor?" Gendo asked, looking down to see Ritsuko's expression."

"Nothing really, sir. I'm Just thinking about what happened today." She said, worriedly. "How is SEELE going to react when they find out what we're doing?"

"Using an Angel as an EVA pilot or not conforming to their precious schedule?" Gendo asked, a slight tinge of derisive mockery present in his voice if you knew how to listen for it.

"Both." Ritsuko stated, evenly.

"Quite frankly doctor, that is more my concern than yours." Gendo responded, sharply.

"I suppose so." Ritsuko said, stiffly, as she walked towards the door of the EVA storage area. "I've got to go and get some work done." She stated, before completely leaving the room.

Gendo stared after her for a moment, wondering if, perhaps, he had been too abrupt, before returning his gaze to the EVA. A few minutes later, he turned and left the room himself.

HR.

At Misato's apartment, Ranma was peacefully sleeping. He was very tired after the day's exertions in the EVA, and welcomed a night of restful, healing sleep.

Pen-Pen was in the bathroom, snoring away in a currently warm bath. The reason why Ranma kept ending up jumping into cold water every morning was because Pen-Pen was constantly sleeping in the bath tub, and the water would cool over night. Of course, the bird could have drained it before the martial artist jumped in, but that wasn't any fun.

Misato was once again passed out on the couch and Shinji was… thinking.

'Why am I here?' he thought, not for the first time. He'd been chasing his proverbial tail around on this issue ever since he'd come to Tokyo 3. Was he here to Pilot the EVAs? But Ranma and Rei were there to do that, even if Rei wasn't able to yet.

Was it to see his father? No. the older man hadn't really had time for him ever since he had arrived, even going so far as telling him to stay at someone else's home. The only reason he could think of for being here was as a back up pilot for the Evangelions, and he hated the things more than he did his father. Sighing in exasperation, Shinji rolled over onto his side and tucked his pillow over his head, desperately trying to get to sleep.

END.

Yeah, another double chapter. I'm thinking of maybe making this the default format, since most of the original chapters didn't exceed 3k words, and only some of the modified ones do.

On the plus side, merging most of the two parter episodes will make for fewer pointless cliff hangers, I suppose.

Hope you enjoyed Ranma's first fight against an Angel. Don't forget to tell me how it was in a review.

Finding the lost

Chapter 9, Finding the lost.

Early morning in the Katsuragi residence was very peaceful. Misato sprawled out over the couch with a can of beer in her hand, Pen-Pen in a cold bath, paddling around lethargically, Ranma snuggled up in his bed, immovable until at least seven-thirty or a glass of water, and Shinji… wait. Where's Shinji? Looking in Shinji's room, a letter lay on his bed, next to his NERV ID card. All of his clothes were gone and the few decorations that he had put up had disappeared.

After Misato had finally woken up, with the obligatory grumbling about a hangover and getting a fresh beer, she walked down to Shinji's room to wake him up for school. She found it a bit odd that he hadn't woken up all ready, actually, since he had taken to waking up early in the past few days.

After her knocks on the boy's door proved futile, the dark haired woman called "You'd better be dressed or still asleep in there, because I'm coming in!" and opened the door. Her expression changed from mild and good humored to surprised and worried, as she found no one in Shinji's room, and no sign of any of his belongings…

Running down the hall, she banged on Ranma's door. "Ranma! Wake up. Shinji's gone missing!"

"Guh?" Came the response from the other side, before one Ranma Saotome snapped fully awake at Misato's words. Dashing around his room, only slightly slowed down by the few still unhealed gashes on his person, Ranma quickly got dressed and opened the door. "Shinji's what?" He asked, as he saw the worried face of Misato in front of him.

"His room's empty and his ID card is sitting on his bed." Misato said, leading Ranma to the aforementioned empty room.

Looking around, Ranma noticed an envelope on the bed next to the ID card. Picking it up, he read "Dear Misato-sama and Ranma-san."

Tearing it open and reading through it, he cursed loudly.

"What is it?" Misato asked, picking up the letter from the place on the floor where Ranma discarded it.

"Shinji ran away. Seems like he thinks he's useless here and wants to get away from his father."

Misato cursed almost as loudly as Ranma had earlier before calming down. "So, what do we do about it?" She wondered, looking worriedly down at the picture on the Ikari boy's I.D.

"I guess I'd better go look for him. Could ya make excuses for us missin school 'till I find him?" Ranma asked, turning and heading for his room.

Misato nodded reluctantly. "How do you think you'll be able to find him?"

Ranma grinned. "I learned to track from someone who could track me across China and to Japan, even without knowing about my curse."

Misato thought about stopping the boy from going for a moment, but she was really worried about Shinji, and that was a pretty good set of qualifications. Nodding, she walked out to her living room, looking for the phone to call the school.

HR.

Shinji Ikari sat on a train, looking out at the city passing by him. It reminded him of the first time he had come to Tokyo 3, all except the drizzling rain that was falling past the windows. He smiled as he thought of how Ranma would react to a day like today, and then his smile fell as he realized that he wasn't likely to see him, Kensuke or Touji for quite a while, if ever. Putting that out of his mind, Shinji slipped a set of head phones over his ears and began listening to music to pass the time.

HR.

Ranma grumbled as she walked through the streets of Tokyo 3, the drizzle that had started an hour ago completely blind-siding her. 'I'm gunna kill Shinji for making me come out in this kinda weather to find him.' She vowed, as she caught sight of the Loop Line station in the distance. Deciding to take advantage of her current status, Ranma went into total poor helpless shivering girl mode. Walking up to the man at the counter, she timidly knocked on the glass. "Ex…excuse me sir? Have you seen this boy?" She asked, holding up a picture of Shinji that she'd taken from Misato's place.

The attendant looked down at the little red haired girl in front of his booth and then to the picture. "I'm sorry Miss, but we aren't supposed to give out information on boarding passengers."

The girl looked up at him with bright shining eyes. "But sir… he's my brother. He ran off and Mom says that we've all gotta help find him. Can you please help me?" She asked.

The man's heart melted at the girl's plea and he sighed, giving up as he told her that the boy had boarded a train fifteen minutes ago. The train was headed for Tokyo 2.

"Thanks mister!" Ranma said, slipping the picture into her pocket again and giving a small shudder as she always did when she had to do the cute girl act… unless it involved ice cream.

HR.

Meanwhile, at the Katsuragi apartment, Misato was pacing back and forth, while Pen-Pen followed her with his eyes. Shortly after Pen-Pen had fallen over from dizziness, the front door bell rang.

"Shinji?" Misato asked, opening the door.

"Um… no Ma'am." A brown haired boy said, as he and his black haired companion stood in the entrance way.

"I'm Kensuke Aida and this is Touji Suzuhara. We're here to walk to school with Ranma and Shinji."

"Aida and Suzuhara? Aren't you the two who got into Unit 01's entry plug with Ranma a few days ago?" Misato asked, narrowing her eyes at the two teens.

Touji laughed nervously. "Well, erm, yeah." He said quickly, ducking back behind the door just in case Misato was a martial artist like Ranma.

"Well I'm sorry." Misato said, looking at Touji strangely. "Ranma and Shinji are at NERV, undergoing tests."

The two boys nodded before turning and leaving. "Stupid Shinji…" Misato muttered, as she kicked the wall next to the door. "OW!"

HR.

It had been a few hours and Shinji's train had gone all around the loop line several times. Taking off his ear phones, he sighed. "I guess I'd better head back," He muttered, before getting up from his seat and walking off of the train.

HR.

Ranma was getting annoyed. She had been around EVERY stop in the loop line at least twice by now, and Shinji hadn't gotten off of any of the trains. This was her third time, and by now the ticket men were just looking at her pityingly and shaking their heads every time she came around. And to top it off, she was catching a cold. This would have to be one of the worst days ever, but well, with her life there were far too many of those to make a list, but today was definitely in the top 30 or so.

As Ranma approached the next station, she saw the man there giving her the thumbs up. Sighing in relief, she dashed over to talk to him. "You've seen my brother?" She asked, panting.

"Yep." The old man at the ticket counter commented. "He was headed down to the entertainment district, down that way." After saying this, he pointed into a clump of buildings nearby.

"Thank you sir!" Ranma yelled, as she ran off towards where the man had pointed.

"Such a nice girl." he muttered, as he went back to reading his newspaper.

HR.

Shinji walked out of the movie theatre, rubbing his eyes at the brightness of the lights outside. Realizing that the sky was dark outside the lobby, he walked over to a bench and curled up on it, going to sleep.

An indeterminate amount of time later, he awoke to the sound of someone coughing nearby. Lifting his head, He saw a girl leaning against a wall, coughing into her hand. Recognizing the red hair and Pigtail, he sat up on his bench. "Ranma?" he asked, as she turned around to face him.

"Shinji. Misato's worried sick about you!" Ranma said, walking over to the boy and sitting on the bench next to him.

"I… I'm sorry." Shinji muttered, looking down. "It's just that I'm completely useless in Tokyo 3…"

Shinji stopped speaking as Ranma punched him on the arm. "Idiot. You ain't useless. You're a backup for me in Unit 01 and besides, who says you have ta be useful? You're only fourteen."

Shinji blinked. "Huh?"

"C'mon man. Think about it. Most fourteen year olds are going to school, coming home, and having fun. Who says you have to be useful? Ya should wait a few years before worrying about that. Besides. What if I can't pilot Unit 01 for some reason and you have to do it in my place, huh?" Ranma said, before sneezing again.

Shinji shuddered. "I hate piloting that thing." he said, softly, looking away from Ranma.

"Weird." Ranma said. "She really likes you for some reason."

"She does? You mean the EVA?" Shinji asked, incredulously.

"Yeah. Every time I look at you when I'm inside her, she feels happy. Not to mention that she got pretty angry when the boss forced you into piloting her." She chuckled a bit. "If I'd let her reactions control what I did when she told me, the Ol' guy'd probably have gotten pretty banged up."

"So you can really feel what the EVAs think?" Shinji asked, looking over at Ranma.

"Only Unit 01. I think I'd have to sync with Unit 00 before I could feel its emotions. Or maybe I just couldn't." She shrugged. "Well, all I know is that we'd better get back to Misato's before she has a panic attack. You just had to go all the way to the outskirts of the city, didn't you?"

Shinji looked down, scuffing one foot against the floor of the theater lobby in embarrassment before the two of them got up.

HR.

As they walked towards the loop line station, Shinji reached into his pocket and his face went pale. "Erm… Ranma?" He asked, looking over at the redhead.

"Yeah?" Ranma asked, looking back curiously.

"I don't suppose you've got any money?"

Ranma shook her head. "Sorry. I left my wallet back at Misato's. I just roof hopped when I was looking for you."

Shinji's shoulders slumped. "I figured as much." He muttered, before turning away from the loop line station and heading in the general direction of NERV HQ and Misato's place.

HR.

After a few hours of walking, the two came to a small grassy park near an elementary school. It had obviously been set up so that the kids could have a safe place to play in the middle of the city. In the field, they could hear someone shouting. "Damn it! I told you to leave me behind!" Then the same voice continued. "No way sarge! No one gets left behind!"

"Is that Kensuke?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shinji shrugged and the two walked into the field, to see Kensuke running around with a toy assault rifle and a head set on his head.

A mischievous smirk crossed Ranma's face, and she stopped, concentrating. A tiny ball of blue energy formed in her palm, and she aimed it carefully.

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Shinji asked, looking amazedly at the redhead.

"Fire in the hole!" Ranma yelled, letting off the ball, which had now grown much bigger, and sending it into the ground several feet to Kensuke's left.

Kensuke turned to see who had yelled when the ball impacted the field, throwing up a cloud of dust. "Guh?" He stuttered, looking at the hole that the ball of energy had produced and then at the grinning face of Ranma.

"Hey Kensuke." Ranma said, as she and Shinji walked up to him, the latter still stunned by the display.

"Hey guys." Kensuke said, slumping to the ground.

"Are you training for guerrilla warfare or something?" Shinji asked, taking notice of the small tent and various fake weapons that were scattered around the field.

"Nah. With this stuff? I'm just having a little fun." Kensuke responded, beginning to try and rekindle the embers of a fire that he had started a while ago.

Ranma knelt next to him, helping rebuild the fire while Shinji watched.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Kensuke asked, noticing that Ranma looked like she'd been up all of the night before and was suffering from a cold, and Shinji didn't look a whole lot better.

"Oh. This guy decided that he was useless and took off." Ranma responded, "I had to go and hunt him down."

"Thought he was useless?" Kensuke asked, blinking at Shinji.

"Well… I am…" Shinji said, the former depression creeping back into his voice.

"Who says! I'll get Touji and Ranma to pound 'em!" Kensuke declared, striking a heroic pose.

Ranma giggled. "Yeah. I'm real intimidating at the moment there, Kensuke."

Kensuke looked down and noticed that Ranma was currently in female form, and looked like she couldn't hurt a fly. "Even better then." He said, grinning. "The element of surprise."

The three had a good laugh at that one.

HR.

Back at NERV, Misato and Ritsuko were walking down a corridor.

"Shinji's been gone for more than a day now." Ritsuko said, worried. "I hope he comes back soon."

Misato nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Ranma's out there looking for him though, and so is Section 2. We'll find him."

Ritsuko nodded in agreement. "Why do you think he took off?"

"I don't know." Misato said, as the two of them arrived in the cafeteria. "My guess is that he didn't want to have to deal with his father anymore. Or maybe he really believed he was useless."

"Maybe he just didn't want to put up with you anymore." Ritsuko grinned, as she picked out the least inedible looking object from the selection near the cash registers.

"Do... Do you think that could be it?" Misato asked, frowning and looking down.

Ritsuko turned to her old friend and saw a concerned and guilty look on the dark haired woman's face. "No, I was just joking." She said, hurriedly. "Wow, Shinji disappearing must have really upset you. I'm sorry for saying that." She said, contritely, as the two women headed for the cash register. Seeing that Misato didn't look reassured, she continued. "I'm sure that when section 2 finds him, he'll be glad to see you."

Misato nodded slightly, still looking worried.

HR.

Kensuke, Shinji and Ranma sat around the crackling camp fire, munching on some hot dogs that Kensuke had brought along for his camping trip. Ranma had snagged a pot full of hot water from Kensuke and was now male, and the three were talking about Random things.

After a brief discussion about their parents, in which Ranma and Shinji tied for the "Most screwed up father" award, omitting the Neko-Ken, of course. The topic then switched to the favorite topic of boys everywhere, girls.

"So Ranma." Kensuke started, looking with a Raised eyebrow at his friend. "What's going on with you and Rei?"

Ranma's face turned bright red. "M…me and Rei? Wadda ya mean?" He asked, stammering.

Kensuke smirked evilly. He loved how easy it was to send his friend into a stammering fit just by mentioning the name of the girl and him in the same sentence, and never quite got tired of it. After thinking for a few moments to line up his words for best effect, he continued. "I dunno. I think you and Shinji are real lucky to be living with that Hot Misato."

Shinji and Ranma both snorted. Shinji spoke up. "You should really get to know her better before saying something like that. She's a lot more than a pretty face."

Ranma continued. "Yeah. Like an inability to do work outside of NERV, the worst cooking I've eaten in a while and a higher alcohol tolerance than my old man."

"Jeas. She can't be all that bad." Kensuke said, laughing.

"Oh believe me. She is." Shinji said, looking back at him perfectly seriously.

"Yeah. But she's got some nice points, too." Ranma said, closing his eyes and leaning back on the log behind him. "She's really concerned about me n' Shinji. Ya shoulda seen her yesterday when he ran off."

Shinji and Kensuke blinked at this. "What was she like yesterday?" Shinji asked, honestly curious.

"Well, she kept pacing back and forth in the living room for at least twenty minutes before I left, and I got a feeling that she kept doing it after, too. Also, every time I called her back to give her a status report, her first words would be 'Shinji? Is that you?'"

"Really?" Shinji asked, a warm and fuzzy feeling spreading through his body for little apparent reason.

"Yep." Ranma said, smiling.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Ranma got up from his position and cracked his back. "Well, we'd better get goin. Still have plenty of time before the sun goes down to get back to Misato's place."

Shinji nodded and the two started back to Misato's apartment.

HR.

About a block away from Misato's place, a group of men in NERV uniforms stopped Ranma and Shinji. "Shinji Ikari?" The leader asked, looking at Shinji and then at a picture in his hand.

"Um… yes." The fourth child said, uncertainly.

"We're with NERV section 2." At Shinji and Ranma's uncomprehending looks, he explained. "We're security. Please come back to headquarters with us."

Shinji blinked, but followed the men as they lead him towards NERV. Ranma walked next to Shinji, not liking the looks of the situation.

HR.

After the group of NERV security led Shinji to headquarters, they tried to throw him into a cell. "Hey. Is that really necessary?" Ranma asked, indignantly.

The leader of the group shrugged. "Well, it is standard operating procedure. If you would take responsibility for him and make sure he doesn't run off, we won't have to put him in there." He had seen Ranma several times and in fact had even sparred with him once or twice in NERV's gymnasium. As a result, he held a healthy respect for the boy.

"Yeah, sure, I've got him," the pigtailed martial artist said, and the section 2 members nodded, before leaving.

After Shinji and Ranma had waited for a few moments, Misato showed up. "Hello Shinji." She said, levelly.

"Hi Misato." Shinji said, remembering the words Ranma had told him about her reaction to his disappearance and looking down in embarrassment.

"What the heck do you think you were doing running off like that!" Misato yelled, getting into Shinji's face.

"I… I just…" Shinji stammered, before realizing that he was at a loss for an explanation that made any real sense.

"Look. You're only a back up Pilot so NERV isn't going to make a big deal about this, but please warn me the next time you pull something like this, Okay?" Misato said, looking into Shinji's eyes.

The boy nodded, subdued.

HR.

"Well, that wasn't all that bad." Ranma commented, as the two made their way back to Misato's apartment after Misato's little speech.

"Yeah. I thought I was going to get a real dressing down over that one." Shinji muttered.

"Women are confusing. I turn into one and I don't understand half of the things they do." Ranma said, smirking. Both of them laughed as they proceeded up the street.

HR.

The next day, Ranma, Shinji, Touji and Kensuke were walking down the street to school.

"So that's all she said to you after you'd been gone for two days?" Kensuke asked, disbelieving.

Shinji shrugged. "I guess she didn't think she had the right to really scold me since she wasn't one of my parents. It was still a really stupid thing to do, though."

"I don't know," Touji said, quietly. "Sometimes you just need time to think about things."

"Huh?" Both Shinji and Ranma asked, confused, but Kensuke seemed to understand, nodding.

"Come on, Ranma, I've got a new model of one of the German defense force's fighters and you said you've been over there, right?" The boy with glasses said. "Can I show it to you so you can recommend a set of markings for it?"

"What?" The martial artist said, blinking, but when Kensuke grabbed him by one hand and pulled him away from the other two, he just shrugged, going with it.

When Shinji and Touji were alone, the larger boy put one hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, and Shinji turned, nervous. "Touji?" He asked, confused.

"Look, this isn't easy, all right?" The black haired boy cut off any questions Shinji was about to ask. "A while ago, when I punched you," he started, slowly. "I'm sorry, I was out of line. When Ranma fought that Angel with Kensuke and I in the entry plug, I saw what it was like to pilot an EVA, even if you're well trained, and it's a lot harder than I thought."

"That's... okay," Shinji said, uncertainly. "Your sister was hurt, you were mad, right?"

"Yeah, but that's no excuse," Touji shook his head. "You risked a lot to protect us all, and even my sister told me I was being an idiot for attacking you, so I want to make it up to you. You get one free shot, I won't even block."

"What?" Shinji asked, blinking.

"One free shot, you heard me, slug me," Touji replied, tapping on his chin.

"I... don't think so," Shinji said, causing Touji to step back slightly. "Just don't do it again, all right?"

The black haired boy couldn't help but snort, before slapping Shinji on the back. "Yeah, I promise," He said, with a grin. "But you sure? Sometimes it's satisfying to hit stuff."

""I'm alright," Shinji said, smiling. "Now let's catch up to the others before Kensuke bores Ranma to death." Both boys chuckled at that.

END.

Steady Shot

Chapter 10, Steady Shot.

Shinji and Ranma stood at the former sight of the second EVA battle in Tokyo 3, looking at the corpse of the angel. "Yeash this thing is big…" Ranma said, amazed at the sheer scale of the thing that he had taken down with just his EVA.

Shinji nodded in agreement. "I think this one is bigger than the one I brought down, but I can't tell."

"Dunno. I was unconscious for most of the first angel battle, remember?" Ranma said, rubbing at the part of his head that he'd knocked against the car's roof. "O'course, that thing looked a heck of a lot bigger from Misato's car than this one did from inside the EVA."

"Yeah." Shinji said, before catching sight of Dr. Akagi and several other people working nearby.

After he pointed this out, the two EVA pilots walked over to Ritsuko, who was hunched over a computer, Misato standing next to her and pretending that she understood the readings.

"Hey Misato, Ritsuko-san." Ranma said, looking over Ritsuko's other shoulder.

Looking at the screen, he saw a red box with a message in it. "That ain't good, is it?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "No Ranma. It isn't. That message means that this material is very hard to analyze. The only thing I've been able to tell about it is that the angels are composed of some sort of material that behaves like both particles and waves, rather similar to light."

"Like light? Does that mean they're made of pure energy or something?" Ranma asked, dredging up hazy memories of science class.

Ritsuko smiled, surprised that Ranma would understand that concept. "Essentially, yes. The strange thing is that other than the different materials they are made of, the way the materials are put together is a 99.89 percent match for the way human genetic codes are assembled."

Misato blinked. "Where have I heard that number before?" She muttered, scratching her chin.

Ritsuko answered her. "You heard that number in Ranma's genetic code data."

Ranma, Misato and Shinji all blinked in unison, creating an almost audible effect.

"I'm sorry Ranma, but this seems to be the evidence necessary to confirm your classification as an Angel. You have the exact same deviations in your genetics as this angel has." Ritsuko said, looking sympathetically at the boy.

He just shrugged. "Alright."

"You aren't upset?" Ritsuko asked, her voice rising in disbelief.

"Ritsuko-san, I turn into a girl with cold water, I'm thirty years old, look… and usually act like I'm fourteen and I can project energy into attacks and barriers. What's not bein human added onto that?"

Ritsuko opened her mouth for a retort, and then gave up and laughed slightly. "I guess you're right about that. Funny, I never thought of it that way."

Looking around, Ranma noticed Gendo talking to a technician. "Hey boss!" he yelled, walking over to the older man.

"Mr. Saotome." Gendo said, looking at Ranma.

Behind the pigtailed pilot, the younger Ikari lowered his head, as his father seemed not to even notice him.

Ranma frowned at this, momentarily flicking his eyes between Shinji's disappointed form and Gendo's stoic face. The older man apparently noticed this reaction, as he briefly nodded at his son. "Hello, Shinji."

The brown haired boy brightened almost instantly. "Hello father." He said.

"So why are you here?" Ranma asked, being far too blunt, and with a noticeable edge to his question.

"I decided to monitor the progress of the angel research. Dr. Akagi tells me that we've learned almost all we can from this specimen." The commander responded, reaching up to adjust the set of his shiny amber eyeglasses.

Ranma shrugged. "I don't know much about that." He said, before thinking of something else. "Hey boss, where's Rei? I woulda thought she'd be here with the rest of us."

"Miss Ayanami is preparing for a sync test later today." Gendo responded, looking at his watch.

"Rei's doing a sync test today in Unit 00?" Ranma asked, looking worried.

"Yes. Dr. Akagi has informed me that she had recovered enough yesterday. The reactivation test will begin at 17:00 hours today. You may attend if you wish." Gendo informed.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. After what happened last time, it'd make me feel better."

Gendo nodded shortly, before walking off. Shinji turned away to go and talk to Misato again, but the pigtailed pilot set off after the commander of NERV.

Shinji wanted to ask Ranma where he was going, but decided not to, and continued on in his original direction.

After Shinji got to Misato, he asked, "What happened last time Rei activated Unit 00?" Remembering the worried tone in Ranma's voice when he had talked about it.

"Oh." Misato said, stopping a conversation with Ritsuko to answer Shinji. "Last time Rei tried to Synchronize with Unit 00 it went berserk. Ranma ended up having to force open the door to the entry plug and rescue her."

"Really?" Shinji asked, looking concernedly at the pigtailed pilot as he walked off.

HR.

"Hey, boss!" Ranma called, again, after Gendo had reached the edge of the clearing where the angel was being studied.

The man stopped, wondering precisely what the boy wanted that he couldn't have asked earlier, but waiting for him to walk along side. "Yes, Mr. Saotome, what is it?" He demanded.

Ranma considered trying to find a tactful way of asking his next question, but couldn't really think of one. Deciding to bite the bullet, He asked, "Why do you keep ignoring Shinji?"

Gendo looked directly into the third child's eyes, his glasses hiding all expression. "Excuse me?" He asked, evenly.

"Look. Shinji was right there, and even I could figure out that he wanted ya to pay some attention to him, so why didn't you?" Ranma demanded, wondering how Gendo could have misunderstood the question the first time. "I mean, he ran away and tried to go back to his teacher's place a few days ago, and you're not even wonderin why?"

"I don't see how this is any of your concern, Mr. Saotome." Gendo retorted, actually starting to sound annoyed.

Ranma stopped. "Well... It ain't, really, but Shinji's a decent kid. I figure ya should at least talk to him every once in a while." He said, trailing off lamely.

Gendo just shook his head, walking away and leaving Ranma standing, unsure of what to say. In the back of his mind, though, the NERV commander had to wonder if Ranma was just butting in on a situation he had no business butting in on, or if the reports Captain Katsuragi had been submitting about the pilot of Unit 01 viewing the machine as somehow alive and communicative contained more substance than she seemed to believe.

HR.

Later on that night, Ritsuko sat in Misato's apartment, eating her meal and being pleasantly surprised by its taste. "Misato? Did you make this?" She asked, a tone of disbelief in her voice.

"Nope." Misato responded, eating some of her own food. "Ranma's our designated Chef. He makes all of the meals, Shinji takes out the garbage and I clean the house."

Ritsuko looked around. "I can see that…" She muttered, noticing that the couch was still half covered with junk, as well as the coffee table. As she said this, Shinji and Ranma walked into the room, Ranma setting down a rather large plate for himself and attacking it like a starving man.

"Oh right." Ritsuko said, reaching into her pocket. "I almost forgot to give this to Shinji. It's his NERV EVA pilot's ID card, instead of the general purpose card you've been using." When she pulled her hand out of her pocket, it held a laminated red plastic card, with the NERV logo on one side and Shinji's stats on the other.

"Thank you Ritsuko san." Shinji said, as he took the card and put it in his wallet. As Ritsuko nodded to Shinji and reached her hand back, she noticed a second card poking out of her pocket. "Oh right. I forgot to give this renewal card to Rei." She said, taking it out and studying it. "Shinji-kun, would you…OW!" She said, as Misato stepped on her foot. "I mean Ranma, would you like to take this to Rei's apartment?" as she glared at Misato.

Ranma blinked. "Sure, I guess." He said, reaching over and taking it. He stared at Rei's face on the card for a moment, before pocketing it. "I'd better get over there with it." He said, before getting out of his chair and running out of the house.

Behind him, Misato stuck her hand into the air in a victory sign, getting a soft chuckle out of Ritsuko.

HR.

As Ranma walked down the street to where Rei's apartment was, he couldn't help but notice that the city was getting more and more dilapidated. A few buildings before hers, one building was actually condemned. This was very surprising, as Tokyo 3 was a very new and modern city, with only one or two neighborhoods like this.

Walking up to Rei's apartment building, Ranma found the tenant directory and found Rei's name on the second floor. Starting up the stairs, he noticed that the building was in much the same condition as the rest of the area. Knocking on the thin metal door with "Ayanami Rei" stenciled onto it, he got no response.

After knocking again and still getting nothing, Ranma called out. "Rei? You in there?"

Getting worried for the girl, he put his shoulder against the door and tried the knob, finding that it was unlocked. Looking around the now revealed room, the pigtailed martial artist was surprised. There was a box full of dirty bandages in one corner, a closet with row upon row of school dresses, a desk and a bed. That was it. He couldn't even see a kitchen, and the place was in the same condition as the building. Walking up to the desk, Ranma saw several school assignments, along with… a picture of him?

Reaching over to pick it up, he found a picture that appeared to have been clipped out of a NERV personnel file, leaned against a book. Just as he was about to put it down he heard the sound of a door opening. Turning, he saw that there was a second door he had missed next to the bed, and Rei was coming out of it… wearing nothing but a towel…around her shoulders.

"R… Rei? I…I… I'm sorry. I tried to knock on the door and you didn't answer and I was worried and Ritsuko-san wanted me to drop off this card and and and…" Ranma stammered, backing towards the door and waiting for the hammer… er mallet to fall. Feeling no impact, he looked up to see Rei still standing there, wearing the towel. After a few seconds, she turned to her bed and dropped it to the ground, causing Ranma to spin around and turn as red as a beat.

A few minutes later, Ranma felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Rei, dressed in her usual school uniform and holding a hand out. After a few minutes of him standing there uncomprehendingly, she reached over and took the picture out of his unresisting hand. This seemed to break Ranma out of his stunned state, and he began to talk again. "I'm sorry for walking in on you like that. Ritsuko wanted me to drop off your ID card. That's all."

Rei nodded, holding her hand out for the card. Fortunately Ranma was a little quicker on the uptake this time and handed it over to her.

Later on, Ranma and Rei were going down a moving sidewalk at NERV when Ranma spoke up again. "So you're going for your third activation attempt in Unit 00 today?"

Rei nodded.

Ranma grimaced. "Yeah. Don't worry. I'll be here to bale ya out."

Rei smiled at him gratefully, before the two arrived at Central Dogma.

Ritsuko and Misato stood talking in the test booth, watching as Rei was loaded into the entry plug of Unit 00.

"You know that her entire past has been erased." Ritsuko commented, pointing at Rei's entry plug.

"Really?" Misato asked, curiously.

"Yep. Everything from her birth up until Gendo became her guardian."

Misato shrugged. "Well, all of the children so far have had screwed up pasts I guess. What I want to know is why Unit 00 goes berserk every time she tries to activate it."

Ritsuko shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's an emotional imbalance."

Misato laughed. "An emotional imbalance, Rei? Yeah right."

Ranma interrupted, from where he had appeared right behind the two women. "Actually, that makes a lotta sense. She's been suppressing her emotions real bad. Of course, if that's the reason the EVA went berserk then it shouldn't happen this time."

Ritsuko blinked. "Really? Why?"

"Well," Ranma said, "She's been doing a bit of meditation and she needed to balance her emotions for that. Haven't ya noticed that she's a little more emotional lately?"

Ritsuko smirked a little. "Now that you mention it, she has been a little more expressive, but I had attributed that to other reasons."

"Huh? What other reasons?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Oh, never mind," the blonde doctor said, ignoring Misato's snickering next to her as a technician approached her.

"Ayanami-san is hooked into her entry plug and we're ready to start the test." Ritsuko nodded, walking towards her station.

Ranma and Misato just stood in front of the window to the test chamber, watching Unit 00 as it sat there.

"Primary nerve link connected." Ritsuko said, beginning the synchronization sequence. "Connecting secondary nerve links."

Maya continued after this. "Rei's sync rate is 10, 12, 13… past threshold."

Mikado spoke up next. "Synchronization stable. Activation successful!"

The room filled with a sense of relief, and Ranma let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, before a message came over the intercom from the central control room. "All sections alert. There is an angel approaching the city. Commander Ikari has ordered that we deactivate Unit 00 and prepare Unit 01 for launch."

Tension flooded back into the room, as all of the personnel proceeded out into the hall and towards the main control room, accept for Ranma who headed for the pilots' locker room. After getting suited up in his plug suit, Ranma was loaded into EVA 01 and Synchronized. As he sat on the launch pad, he used the EVA's cameras to zoom in on the command centre, seeing Shinji, Rei and Misato standing in a line and looking out at him. Raising his EVA's arm as it was let out of restraints, he waved at them.

Ritsuko, who was seen on his monitor, laughed at this before becoming serious. "All right Ranma. Are you ready for launch?"

Ranma nodded, putting his EVA's hand back down to her side. "Let's do this."

Misato's voice could be heard in the background. "All right people. EVA Launch!"

Ranma felt the jolt as his Evangelion flew up the launch tunnel, ending up at the surface.

"Holy crap…" he muttered, seeing the massive eight sided double pyramid that floated in the sky nearby.

HR.

At the same time in central dogma, Ritsuko stared at her console. "The Angel is building up a charge in its central section. "That could only mean..." She started, before her eyes widened. "Ranma, move now!" She yelled.

HR.

Instinctively, the pigtailed EVA pilot tried to follow Ritsuko's order, diving to the left to take him out of the Angel's line of fire. Unfortunately, this resulted in him slamming Unit 01 into the side of the catapult support structure. It only took him a few seconds to right himself in preparation to step forward off of the platform, but it had been enough time, and the Angel let off a powerful energy beam.

In a last ditch effort to save himself, Ranma threw up Unit 01's AT Field, but the Angel's beam tore through the hastily erected shield as though it wasn't there.

HR.

As the Angel's attack slammed into the Evangelion's chest armor, all of the crew in central dogma could hear the pilot's scream of agony.

"Retract Unit 01!" Misato ordered, a tear in her eye. Seeing that everyone was just sitting, stunned, she yelled "Now!"

Rei stood with her hand at her mouth, her eyes open wide in shock.

HR.

As EVA 01 came down into the EVA cage area, Misato and the two children ran into the room. There was a large, blackened and warped area on the front of the EVA's armor, and it seemed to be hanging from the remains of the support structure.

"Force eject the entry plug!" Misato yelled, running towards the gantry where the ejected plug could be accessed. "Vent the LCL immediately and get some medics in here!" As technicians scrambled to follow the strategic operations officer's order, the two children stood and watched in silence.

Once the entry plug had been ejected and all of the LCL vented, the hatch was opened and two technicians carried Ranma's limp body out of it, laying him on a stretcher. Rei and Misato gasped as Shinji covered his mouth as if he were going to be sick. The pigtailed boy didn't seem to be breathing, and his skin was so discoloured that it looked like he'd been boiled alive.

"What happened to him?" Rei asked, walking over to the stretcher. No one answered her, as many medical staff raced around the boy, connecting life support equipment.

"Ma'am!" One tech yelled, after hooking a device to Ranma's neck. "Heart beat present, yet very weak, breathing irregular."

Misato sighed in relief, as the stretcher was rapidly wheeled out of the room and towards the medical wing.

HR.

"Launch another drone." Misato ordered, studying the main screen in Central Dogma. On the screen, a set of the outer armor for an EVA unit without anything inside popped up in Tokyo three. An instant after it had appeared, a beam struck out from the angel and drilled a hole through its chest plate. "Alright… Try the automated defenses." She said, losing hope by the minute.

A defense turret swung out from its shell inside a building, trying to hit the angel… only to be vaporized.

Maya spoke up. "Ma'am. It appears that the angel can target anything within the city and destroy it if it is perceived as a threat. Its target acquisition time is less than fifteen seconds and that particle cannon doesn't seem to run out of ammo."

Misato cursed. "AT field?" She asked, hoping that it was thin.

Hyuga spoke up. "It's AT field is powerful enough to actually warp light passing through it, making it visible all of the time. Induction shell bombing would be like throwing rocks at it."

"All right. How about a particle beam of our own?" Misato asked, glaring at the angel.

"Well, in theory it would work, but NERV doesn't currently have a beam powerful enough to penetrate the AT field. The only one in Japan that's theoretically capable of that would be the prototype model the JSSDF is building at Matsashiro." Maya said, tapping rapidly at her keyboard.

A gleam entered Misato's eye. "Put me through to the JSSDF."

HR.

Later, in a conference room within NERV, Misato, Ritsuko, Rei and Shinji were sitting around a table. Misato began the meeting by pressing a button on the table in front of her. An image of the angel appeared on a screen behind her, with a cylindrical object extending from its base to the ground. "The angel is attempting to drill its way directly into the Geofront. It will penetrate the Geofront in less than ten hours. My plan is to use the newly developed particle beam weapon from the JSSDF to shoot through it's AT field and hit the core."

Rei spoke up. "Won't the angel just attack the Evangelion unit which attempts to fire the weapon?"

Misato shook her head. "We are going to conduct this operation from a base at the top of a nearby mountain, and there will be two EVAs involved. One for defense and one to aim and fire the rifle. Shinji. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to pilot Unit 01 in this mission."

"But why? What about Ranma?" Shinji asked, nervously.

Ritsuko spoke up at this. "Due to Pilot Saotome's high psycho-sympathetic reaction rate to the EVA, the damage that the angel inflicted on the EVA was reflected on his body. He will be down for several days, even factoring in his quick healing rate. Quite frankly, I don't know how he managed to survive such a wound."

Everyone in the room was surprised when they heard Rei clearly say, "Captain Katsuragi, I request permission to take the firing position in this operation."

"I'm sorry Rei." Misato said, not letting her surprise at this reaction show. "Due to your lower sync rate with Unit 00, as well as your lack of real-world combat experience, I'm afraid that Shinji will have to fire the weapon."

Rei looked down at the table. "So I will be the defense unit?"

"Yes." Misato said, before clicking the button in front of her again. "NERV technical division has adapted the heat shield from an obsolete space shuttle to block the angel's attack. Due to their use in de-orbiting space craft, these shields have exceptional thermal properties. The operation will begin at zero hundred hours midnight. Any other questions?"

No one spoke up, so Misato dismissed the meeting.

HR.

Daisuke Aida looked at his work request form, blinking. "We're supposed to get an entire temporary base set up in six hours?" He muttered, before tossing the order sheet on his office's desk and walking out of the room. Grabbing his Nerve Technical Division Repair and Construction Crew foreman's ID badge off of a shelf near the door, he clipped it to his shirt pocket. After spending his whole early life in the Nerima district, watching things get blown up and repaired in record time, construction just seemed to be the thing to do.

As he walked away from his office to begin following his new orders, Daisuke noticed that the medical wing was a lot more crowded than usual. Deciding to see what was going on he poked his head around the corner of the door to the main patient recovery room. On the bed, apparently asleep, lay a black haired fourteen year old boy with a pigtail. 'Kensuke was serious?' he thought, before walking into the room.

Walking over to the bed, Daisuke recoiled at the sight of the massive white gauze bandage, half filled with a red stain, that was pressed over a significant portion of his old friend's chest. "Ranma, what happened to you?" He muttered, before feeling someone tapping gently on his shoulder. Spinning around, he saw a young girl with blue hair about the same age as Ranma appeared to be standing behind him.

"I apologize for startling you." The girl said, walking past Daisuke to Ranma's bed. Looking down at Ranma's face, the girl smoothed a lock of his black hair that had fallen out of place back in before gripping his hand. "I shall visit you every day, just like you did for me." She said, before leaving the room.

"Still a killer with the ladies, eh Saotome?" Daisuke said, before smiling fondly at his friend's unconscious body and laughing. "I should probably try and talk to you when you're awake. I might get more interesting answers that way." Shrugging, he turned around and left the room.

HR.

Shinji and Rei sat in the NERV pilots' changing room, after putting on their plug suits. "Why are you doing this?" Shinji asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Duty." Rei responded, adjusting the neck seal on her plug suit.

"Duty to who? My father?" Shinji asked, an edge of bitterness in his voice.

The blue haired girl stayed silent for a moment, before speaking. "I don't think you understand duty if you have to ask that question." She finally said.

"Ranma?" Shinji asked, blurting the name out as if he'd just solved a problem.

"Hmm?" Rei asked, seeming almost confused.

"Are... are you doing it for Ranma?" Shinji clarified.

Rei didn't answer right away, seeming to mull something over in her mind before she spoke again. "Partially." she said, and Shinji could have sworn that he saw an expression of surprise, or perhaps realization, on her face before she left the dressing room.

HR.

Shinji sat in the entry plug of unit 01, looking at its controls. It only had two triggers, a single lever and a couple of rows of tiny labeled buttons, however they were the most interesting things in the world to him at the moment. Trying to calm himself down, as this was only his second combat exercise in an EVA, Shinji thought of the words that Ranma had spoken on their walk home after Shinji had ran off.

/Flashback./

Ranma was walking on a fence next to the sidewalk, her hands behind her head while Shinji trudged along beneath her. "Hey Shinji?" She asked, looking down at him.

"Yeah?" Shinji responded, having to crane his neck to gain a look at the redhead's face.

"Why do ya hate piloting the EVA so much, anyways?"

"It's… I don't know." Shinji sighed. "It's just so strange, and I guess I'm a little scared. I mean, I'm in this gigantic tin can fighting against something that can squash me like a bug."

Ranma laughed. "You shouldn't worry about the EVA. She'll protect you."

"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking confused.

"I said the EVA'll protect you. You've got the AT field, all of her armor, and of course the fact that she wants to protect you. People or EVAs can do real impressive things when they wanna protect others, ya know."

Shinji blinked. "She wants to protect me?" he asked, sounding disbelieving.

"Sure." Ranma said, smiling. "Now if the boss were to get into that entry plug, I'm sure that'd be the part of her body that she'd always present to the enemy. But it's you. She really wants to keep you safe. She'd probably sacrifice half her body just to keep you from getting hit, probably even more. I'm actually kinda jealous of you. I only WISH someone cared half as much about me as that EVA does for you." She then laughed, flipping off of the fence and to the ground.

/End Flashback./

"Well." Shinji muttered, putting his hand on one of the control sticks. "I hope Ranma's right about you." Soon after he said that, Ritsuko's face appeared on the screen in front of him. "All right Shinji. It's time to launch. Misato's over at Mt. Futago so she'll meet you there."

Shinji nodded, as he began Syncing with the EVA.

Later, at 23:40 hours, Shinji and Rei were laying on a hill overlooking Tokyo 3 in their EVAs. Behind them, many technicians were getting the connections for the laser ready.

"Is the laser ready to fire yet?" Misato asked, looking at the time display nervously.

"Not yet, Ma'am." One of the technicians reported from his workstation. "Full power will be available within 10 minutes."

Misato nodded, looking worriedly into Tokyo 3, where the angel was digging into the Geofront. Ritsuko walked up next to her, looking over the rows of power transformers littering the backside of the small mountain.

"You do know this plan is insane, right Misato?" She asked, looking from the transformers to the massive rifle in the hands of EVA 01 and back again.

Misato glared at her. "C'mon Ritsuko. The Magi gave it the go ahead."

"By an eight percent margin." Ritsuko finished, her worry evident in her voice.

"It WILL work." Misato said adamantly. "It has to."

HR.

Twenty minutes later, Unit 01 was laying prone, the massive energy rifle stretched out on supports in front of it, carefully lining up the shot.

"Now remember Shinji. This shot has all of the power in Japan behind it. Don't miss." Misato said, putting more pressure on someone who had already cracked from it long ago.

"Power rerouting completed." Ritsuko said, nodding as a computerized diagram she was studying turned completely red.

In the entry plug, Shinji was sweating bullets, hearing Hyuga's countdown in his ears and trying to keep the Angel centered in his computerized targeting display. As Misato yelled "Fire!" His finger tightened on the trigger, and the rifle spat a long beam of white hot energy as the angel did the same in the other direction. The magnetic fields of the shots met and they were both redirected off target, though the near miss caused the EVA to shake violently, and judging from the com. traffic he was getting from the temporary base, they were having worse problems than he was.

"Damn." Shinji muttered, watching the indicators begin to tick down the time remaining till he could fire again, as the angel appeared undamaged from a cloud of smoke.

About thirty seconds before the cool down was completed, Shinji heard a voice coming through his comm. "High energy reaction detected in the target!"

A second later, the angel shot another particle beam towards Shinji's EVA and Rei got in the way, intercepting it.

HR.

Ranma lay in the bed at NERV, still asleep. In the middle of a dream involving his father tied up and an endless table of food, Ranma's perception suddenly switched to a view of EVA unit 00, holding a gigantic shield and…. Deflecting a laser?

"What the hell?" Ranma asked, trying to look around. This bore very few results, until he finally got himself to look down to see the hands of Unit 01 gripping what looked like the stock of a ridiculously long rifle, that apparently took automatically loaded electrical fuses for ammunition. His head looked up again, to see Rei's shield almost burnt through.

In an instinctive reaction, Ranma opened his AT field and threw it forward, enveloping Rei's EVA inside it and deflecting the laser energy to either side. He was straining to do it, however he just barely managed to keep it up long enough for Unit 00 to get out of the way and the laser to stop firing.

HR.

"What the hell was that?" Misato yelled, referring to the blue AT shield that had appeared in front of Unit 00 before its heat shield could be burnt through.

Rei's face appeared at the bottom of her screen, a small smile crossing it. "That was Ranma, Captain Katsuragi." Somehow, Misato believed her.

Just after Unit 00 got out of the way, Shinji fired the Particle Laser, sending its beam straight into the core of the angel. It crashed to the ground, kicking up a great deal of dust and destroying several low lying structures beneath it.

HR.

The next day, Rei was sitting in a hospital room next to a bed where Ranma was laying. As she sat next to his quietly sleeping form, she held a math book in her hand and was smiling to herself.

When Ranma woke up, his chest hurt like hell. Not like the few times he had taken a bad hit there in female form, no. This was about a hundred times worse. Cracking open an eye, he quickly shut it at the brightness of the light. "What hit me?" He muttered, turning his head and trying to open the same eye again.

"I believe it was a highly focused coherent particle beam." Rei said, analytically.

"Thanks for that update." Ranma groaned, trying to sit up on the bed and introducing himself to whole new worlds of pain. "Gah…" he groaned, putting a hand up to his chest. Feeling a very heavily rapped wound, he decided to stay lying down for a while. "So, I guess you've gone and taken my place completely, huh?" he asked, smirking at Rei.

"Yes. Although I know a lot more about school than you do." She responded, perfectly flatly.

Ranma laughed, wincing as it irritated his wound. "Well then, I guess I'm gunna learn something. Just promise you aren't gunna talk about second impact."

Rei actually giggled softly at that.

END.

Sorry this one took so long. My proof reader came down sick with something a few days ago, and I think I'm starting to come down with something now. Thank you for waiting, and please R&R!

RedLine

This is a gift for the two days of no posts. Not a very good one, sure, since it's just Jet Alone, but it's there.

Have fun!

Chapter 11, Red-line.

Ranma sighed in relief as he walked through the doors of the NERV medical centre, after staying there for about a week. He hated hospitals. Rei walked next to him, looking at him dubiously. "Are you sure you should be leaving the hospital so soon?"

"I'm fine." Ranma reassured her, turning a backwards summersault in the air. He concealed the wince as he landed.

Rei looked at him with what appeared to be concern. "Should you not have waited for Dr. Akagi to give approval before you left the medical wing?"

Ranma grinned. "That'd take too long."

After the two had walked together for a while, Rei turned off to go to her apartment as Ranma continued on to Misato's.

HR.

"I'm home!" he yelled, walking in.

"Ranma? What are you doing here?" Misato asked, jumping up off of the couch. "You should still be in the hospital.

"I'm fine." Ranma said, slumping down on the couch where Misato had been a moment before. "Wadda doctors know anyways?"

Misato shrugged. "Okay then. I guess you'll be going to school tomorrow, then?"

"Better than staring at a ceiling all day." Ranma answered, picking a note up off of the table next to the couch. Reading it, he grinned. "Plus, I wouldn't wanna miss your impression of a responsible parent."

Misato snatched the note away from him. "What do you mean my "Impression."? I'm a responsible guardian."

"You're saying that to the guy who cooks your food. I bet you've been poisoning Shinji while I was in hospital, right?"

Misato growled. "I have not!"

Shinji, who had just come in the door from school, spoke up. "Actually, I've had to do all of the cooking."

Misato turned a glare on him, and he smiled weakly before running into his room.

"Coward." Ranma muttered, before walking out of the living room and into his own. After the two boys had left the room, Misato flopped down on the couch, cracked open a beer and opened a NERV report, starting to read.

HR.

The next morning, Ranma got up, grabbed some clothes and walked into the bathroom. After the obligatory Penguin morning cold water surprise, she got out of the bath tub, walking to the mirror and reaching for the tooth paste. Hitting only air, Ranma groped around for a second before finding the tube about an inch lower than it should have been. "What the heck?" She muttered, before brushing her teeth and combing her fingers through her red hair, tying it back into its normal pigtail.

Getting dressed in the bathroom to spare a certain other tenant of the apartment massive blood loss, Ranma walked out of the room, stumbling on the step that separated it from the rest of the apartment. "What's wrong with me today?" She complained, re-adjusting her balance.

Walking into the kitchen to cook breakfast, Ranma kept reaching higher in the cupboards than she needed to, almost performing an Akane impression by adding rat poison instead of sugar. Quickly grabbing the right ingredient, she continued cooking, and made a mental note to move the rat poison later so that Misato wouldn't grab it by mistake during one of her attempts at cooking.

A few minutes later, Misato and Shinji staggered into the kitchen, Misato sitting at the place with the can of beer next to the food. Ranma splashed herself with hot water, and then slipped into his place and began eating, putting the annoying mistakes he had been making all morning out of his mind.

HR.

After breakfast, Ranma and Shinji walked to school, meeting up with Kensuke and Touji on the way. "Hey Ranma. How're you feeling?" Kensuke asked, looking Ranma over for signs of injury.

"I'm Okay." Ranma said, shrugging. "The major damage closed up completely yesterday. It's just a little tender now. Still pretty nasty looking though." he commented, running a finger across the middle of his chest on a diagonal line.

Touji grinned. "That's Ranma for you. You could blow him up and he'd bounce back in a month."

Ranma shrugged. "Dr. Akagi's pulling her hair out trying to figure out how I do it. She doesn't seem to believe its all martial arts training. Anyways, are you guys's families coming to the parent teacher interviews today?"

Kensuke and Touji both nodded but Touji had a sad and resigned look on his face. "My mom's gunna kill me when she talks to Mr. Zeggawa. I keep falling asleep during his lectures."

Ranma laughed. "I can't blame you. That guy's about as exciting as watching Pen-Pen sleep. The only thing that's keeping me from failing his class is all of the places I've been on training trips and all of the stories I've heard. I think I know everything He's got to say."

"You traveled a lot?" Shinji asked, curiously.

"Yeah. I only got back into Japan about a month before NERV found me. I was wandering Europe for a while before that. The French had some really interesting martial arts, even after second impact." Ranma explained.

After a few more minutes of friendly chat, in which Kensuke expounded the virtues of N2 devices and Shinji just looked confused, the group arrived at school.

HR.

At about ten o'clock that morning, the students' parents began to arrive and general classes were dismissed. Ranma caught sight of Misato and made his way over to her, seeing that she was in her NERV uniform and with their math teacher talking animatedly to her.

'That Ranma boy is one of the worst students I've ever had…" He was saying, as Ranma walked up.

"Hey Misato." He said, smoothly interrupting his math teacher's denunciation of his skill in the subject.

"Hi Ranma." Misato said, turning away from the old man and leaving him to sputter at her turned back.

"So ya made it here, huh?" The pigtailed boy said.

"Well. I figured that I'd better prove you wrong and be a responsible guardian." Misato said, grinning at her charge.

"I dunno. It's too bad that the boss couldn't be here today. I mean Shinji is his son."

Just as Ranma said that, he heard a familiar battle cry. "Ranma! Prepare to die!"

Turning rapidly around and into a crouch, he saw an older man with brown hair and glasses grinning at him. "Huh?" he asked, blinking.

"So, has my Ryoga impression gotten any better?" The older man asked, his grin getting wider.

"Ryoga impression… Daisuke?" Ranma asked, a happy smile spreading over his own face." I shoulda figured you'd have survived. After all, you and Saiyuri were off on your honeymoon when the city went up…"

"Yeah. And here everyone in town thought you and Akane would be the first ones married." Daisuke joked.

Ranma winced. "Way to remind me." He muttered, looking down.

"Oh jeez. You mean she didn't get out with you?" The older man asked, his expression turning apologetic.

Seeing where this was going, Misato interjected. "Ranma? You know Foreman Aida?"

Ranma looked surprised. "Foreman? You work for NERV?"

Daisuke grinned. "Yep. Got a job building things. After seeing all that stuff in Nerima, my only two real career choices were martial arts or construction and I suck at martial arts." He shrugged. "So how the heck did you get into EVA Piloting… wait, stupid question. 'If there's a fight somewhere, it doesn't matter if he has to break laws of physics to do it, Ranma Saotome WILL get involved.'" Daisuke said, quoting a line that, at one point, the Furinkan Science Club was concidering adding to the laws of physics. "But I'm sure there's a really interesting story behind this one."

Ranma laughed. "Yeah. Well, about a year ago…" The two of them walked off, talking about old times and exchanging histories. Misato looked vaguely confused for a few moments, before turning to search for Shinji.

HR.

Gendo Ikari sat in a darkened room, a collection of monoliths surrounding him. He was staring off into space, waiting for something to happen. Within moments it did, and the tiniest flinch could be seen in his jaw and shoulders.

"Hello Ikari." A voice said, coming from no where in particular.

"Keel." Gendo responded.

"You know why you have been called here, correct?" Keel's voice came from one of the monoliths in the room, labeled SEELE 1.

"You are angry at my deviation from the plan." Gendo stated, evenly.

"Yes we are, Gendo." Keel's voice came again, rising in volume. "Where was it written in the scrolls that there were to be four children at this time? Where was it written that one of them was to be a confirmed angel! We have had to alter our plans drastically because of your meddling, Ikari. Please refrain from making any more… "Adjustments" to the plan. Am I clear?"

Gendo nodded.

"You may leave now Gendo. Just be careful where you step." Keel said, as a door behind Gendo opened and he exited the room.

HR.

Later on that day, after school, Ranma was sitting in the pilots' locker room, in female form, trying to put on her plug suit. Ritsuko had wanted some more data on her girl form after the standard tests from her male form today, and Ranma had reluctantly obliged. The problem was, her plug suit seemed too small.

Every time she tapped the button on the wrist that normally sucked the material close to her body, it felt like it was trying to squeeze her into a hunchback, and the sensations below were... not worth thinking about.

Frustrated and rather disgusted, she tugged it off and retrieved her school clothes. If Shinji had been able to pilot in them at least once, she could as well.

HR.

As Ranma walked up to the EVA cages, she was stopped by Ritsuko. "Ranma, where's your plug suit?" She asked, looking the girl over.

Ranma shrugged. "The one for my girl form doesn't fit anymore. I dunno why. My coordination in this form seems off too."

Ritsuko blinked as she realized that she didn't have to look as far down as usual to look the young redhead in the face. "Ranma. I think we should head down to the medical section."

Nodding, the EVA pilot followed Ritsuko as she lead her to the medical wing and then into an exam room. "Please take off your clothes."

Blushing slightly, Ranma undressed and stood in the middle of the room. Ritsuko got her to stand on a scale and then measured and weighed her. "Hmm… strange. You seem to have gained about ten Kilos and three inches in height since your last standard physical."

"Three inches?" Ranma asked, surprised.

Ritsuko nodded. "You're about five feet even, now."

Ranma shook her head. "That isn't right. My girl form's never gotten past four eleven, for as long as I can remember. Even when I was thirty I was four eleven."

The blonde scientist shrugged. "My only guess is that you've hit some sort of a growth spurt that you didn't originally go through, since your curse was given to you when you were sixteen. I've never seen one act this fast, but since you were fitted for a plug suit a month ago and your last exam was when you were fitted it is possible."

Nodding, Ranma stepped down off of the scale and put her clothes back on. "Alright. Whatever. Could you tell me when this thing is going to stop? It's been messing with my coordination."

Ritsuko shook her head. "I'm afraid not. This kind of thing is unpredictable unless we had one of your parents' medical records to work off of, and even then I couldn't be sure."

Ranma sighed. "Well thanks anyways doc. Do you want to do the EVA tests anyways?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Yes, but beforehand I should probably give you something." Ranma looked at her, confused, so she explained. "Ever since we found out that LCL can trigger your curse, and noted how often it's triggered even by accident, I've been working on a plug suit that should fit both forms, just in case. It's been on the back burner for a little while, but I got the prototype in last week, and I guess it's a good thing."

"I guess," Ranma agreed, as Ritsuko lead her to one of the storage areas near the EVA cages, retrieving the new suit, which looked quite a lot like her old ones with the obvious difference that there were quite a lot fewer hard plates, and had her put it on before continuing the testing.

HR.

A couple of days later, Ranma and Shinji were sitting at the table eating breakfast when Misato walked out of her room, dressed in her full dress uniform.

"Hey Misato." Ranma asked, looking curiously at her. "Where ya going?"

Shinji just looked on, astonished that their guardian was actually sober and dressed. That she looked great was almost beside the point.

"I'm going to old Tokyo today. Don't wait for me for dinner." Misato responded, shortly, before she walked out of the door.

"What's got her so upset?" Shinji asked, looking curiously at the door.

"It's probably having to go to old Tokyo." Ranma responded, taking a bite of his rice.

"What's so bad about going to old Tokyo?" Shinji wondered, looking curiously at Ranma.

"Well, for people who used to live there, it's a disturbing experience. I know I hate going back there." Ranma said.

"Oh." Shinji responded, looking slightly sad.

HR.

A few hours later, in the middle of English class, Ranma, Shinji and Rei's cell phones all rang. The teacher gave them a dirty look and they quickly left the classroom. Deciding that Rei would be the one to answer the call, Ranma and Shinji waited to hear the news.

"Yes. I understand." Rei said, before turning off her phone.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, leaning towards the girl.

"Misato san wants you and Unit 01 loaded onto a transport aircraft for immediate deployment to the Jet Alone research facility. Apparently the Jet Alone prototype is out of control."

"Right." Ranma said, running down the hall. "Make excuses for me!" he yelled back, jumping out of a window.

HR.

Ranma looked at the massive transport plane in front of his EVA. "I'm supposed to put an EVA on that?" he wondered, worried about the weight.

Hyuga smiled at him from a portable control unit that had already been loaded. "Don't worry about it. This plane was designed to do this. The EVA is attached to rails underneath so that its weight can be balanced and it can be deployed quickly."

"You're gunna hang the EVA off the bottom of this thing?" Ranma asked, his previously cautious attitude getting worse. Unfortunately, there was a sizable city that was going to be blown up if Unit 01 wasn't moved quickly. "All right." He said, before slowly moving EVA 01 into position to be attached to the aircraft.

HR.

About twenty minutes of looking at clouds go by later, Hyuga's face appeared on the screen again. "All right. Now I'm going to begin the EVA's power-up sequence. Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Ranma nodded. Within a few seconds, he heard a sort of clicking sound, and Unit 01's cockpit lit up with all of its usual indicators. The indicator that displayed backup battery life showed 19:57 as Ranma looked at it, and he began to feel the wind touching the few exposed parts of the EVA's skin.

"You've been fully synchronized. Preparing to release EVA in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Hyuga announced, in a calm voice. Just as the technician said one, Ranma felt the EVA falling straight down for about two seconds. Immediately after that, it started rushing forward.

Immediately after the EVA cleared the plane, Ranma stretched his arms and legs out in order to reorient to the vertical. He easily made it back to a standing position over the course of the twenty five hundred foot drop to the ground. the EVA's legs flexed in preparation for landing, and strained when its mass impacted, but it remained upright. Looking around, He saw Misato standing on the roof of a nearby building. Walking over to her he picked her up.

Suddenly, Ranma heard Misato's voice over his Comm. system. "It's about time you got here. Now get me to Jet alone." She said, pointing to a large bulky looking robot on the horizon. Ranma nodded his head, automatically nodding unit one's head as well, before running towards the other mecha with Misato carefully cupped in his Eva's left hand. After catching up, Ranma saw the backpack of the robot and pointed at it with the Eva's other hand. After Misato confirmed, Ranma flattened the hand carrying her out next to the robot and carefully created an AT field platform, which Misato used to hop onto the backpack.

"Good. Now all you have to do is hold it in place." The older woman said, clambering into the hatch on the back of Jet Alone.

"Yes Ma'am." Ranma said, jogging ahead of the robot and anchoring his EVA's feet to the ground, catching it by the shoulders.

"Woh!" he yelled, as the Robot shoved his EVA backwards slightly. Entrenching his feet deeper into the ground, Ranma gritted his teeth as the robot continued to struggle against his hold. He briefly glanced at the battery power meter, noting that it was chewing away the time at about five times normal speed, as the EVA was performing far past the batteries' normal power output.

"Hey Misato. Ya wanna hurry up in there? The battery's goin fast, and I think we've only got a couple minutes left!" Ranma said, strain quite audible in his voice.

All Ranma got from Misato was the sound of her grunting as she apparently shoved something into place inside the robot, and then it stopped. It happened so suddenly that Ranma almost shoved the thing over before he stopped trying to hold it back with his EVA. Just as he straightened up and let go of the JA, his battery power ran out.

END.

Warned you, not a spectacular chapter in the original, and I never really thought of a way to make it better in this version. The real meat of tonight's update was the last chapter.

In case anyone's curious, this chapter's on its own because the next one used to be a two parter. I really didn't want to weigh down Asuka's arrival with this bit.

Anyhow, hope some of you enjoyed this!

Water and Ranma Saotome don't mix

Chapter 12. Water and Ranma Saotome don't mix.

November 12, 2004. Gehirn research base, Tokyo 3, Geofront.

Yui Ikari sat in front of a console, tapping in commands. After about five minutes of this, she turned her chair around to face her husband, Gendo. "Well. I've checked the whole system. Something seems off, but I can't place it."

"I'm sure it's just pre-test jitters." Gendo said, soothingly.

Yui sighed, running her fingers through her short brown hair. "I hope that's all it is. I am getting into this thing, after all. I guess this is what Gehern was really built for." Getting out of her chair, Yui hugged Gendo before pecking him on the cheek, walking out of the room shortly afterwards.

After Yui left, Gendo felt a tugging on his leg. Looking down, he saw his four year old son, Shinji, standing there holding a well worn teddy bear. Picking him up in his arms, Gendo smiled at the boy. "Hey Shinji. After we go and watch your mother's test, how about we get some ice cream."

Shinji grinned happily as his father carried him out of the room.

HR.

Yui Ikari looked in a mirror in the locker room, smirking at her own image in the skin tight blue and white plug suit. Although they were theoretically necessary for anyone who tried to sync with an EVA, she really liked the way she looked in one. Tightening the seals with the press of the switch at her wrist, Yui walked out of the locker room and towards the cage where the first test type Evangelion Unit, Unit 01, was being held. She hoped this test would go well and that she could get home early tonight to see her son and husband. She had been putting in heavy over time on project E recently, and having a few hours off would be nice.

As Yui walked out into the EVA cage area, she looked at Unit one's bright orange paint scheme and wrinkled her nose. "We've really got to get this thing repainted." She muttered, hearing Gendo's laugh from behind her.

"Oh really? What color do you think it should be?" Gendo asked, Shinji still balanced on his shoulder.

"Call me crazy, but I think this thing would look really good in purple." Yui laughed, taking Shinji from Gendo's arms for one last kiss on the forehead before handing him back.

"My lady's wish is my command." Gendo said, executing an exaggerated bow. "I'll have it repainted as soon as possible!"

Yui giggled at Gendo's antics before running over to the EVA's entry plug and opening its hatch, climbing in.

Settling down in the plug's single hard backed seat, she flipped the switches in front of her to activate the EVA's control systems. In future models of the entry plug this feature would probably not exist, and the functions she was currently regulating would be controlled through a control centre, but project E didn't really have all that many research staff yet, and she had to do it manually.

After the signature weightless feeling of being picked up by the manipulator arm, Yui heard the thud of the plug being locked in, and the lights around her came alive. A few seconds later, she hit a button on the control panel in front of her and LCL filled the chamber, running over her body and the waterproof console in front of her. Flicking another switch, Yui opened a comm. Link with Gendo and the engineers who were standing outside the plug, speaking into it.

"All right. The LCL filling process is complete, no malfunctions detected. Looks like the new water tight equipment is working."

Gendo's voice came over her radio next. "Good to hear. Getting a full keyboard that worked while submerged in LCL took some time."

Yui laughed, before keying in some commands. "Beginning Synchronization. A-10 nerve connected." Suddenly, the world around her blurred and resolved into the world around the EVA, causing her to have to concentrate to see the display in front of her. "I'm synchronizing. I've got a 10… a 20 point Sync rate. This is supposed to be impossible…" She muttered, looking at the graphs on the screen in front of her. "… My sync rate keeps going up. 40, 50, 60… There's something wrong here. I'm trying to eject the plug."

HR.

"Yui, are you all right?" Gendo asked, getting worried at the slight note of fear he could hear in his wife's voice.

"I'm fine, Gendo. I've just got to… damn it! The plug isn't accepting the eject order. My sync rate is still going up… and I can't disconnect!"

"Get that plug out of there!" Gendo yelled, sending technicians scrambling towards the EVA. They succeeded in getting the protective armor open, but the plug never moved.

Yui's voice came over Gendo's comm. again. "Gendo. I'm feeling strange in here. My sync rate is over 250 and it's increasing at a faster rate now. I don't know what's going on… but I just want you to remember to take care of…" The radio cut into static as the technicians succeeded in withdrawing the plug slightly, however all this did was cut off external communications and cameras.

Yui began to panic as her external cameras flickered and died, as she finished her sentence. "…Shinji."

Looking at the still climbing numbers on her synchrograph, Yui truly felt terror for the first time in her life as the numbers hit four hundred… and her body dissolved.

Tokyo 3, 2014.

Ranma woke in a cold sweat, looking around frantically. No entry plug, no plug suit and no number four hundred staring him in the face. Looking down at his hands, he realized that they were shaking, and most of the dream was fading rapidly from his memory.

Getting out of bed, he grabbed a change of clothes and headed for the bathroom. It was earlier than he usually got up, but he wasn't really likely to get back to sleep.

After a quick bath, Ranma decided to stay in female form and work on some kata to fix her balance.

HR.

Later that morning, Ranma, Shinji and Misato were sitting around the table, eating breakfast, when Misato spoke up. "You two are missing school today. We're going on a trip."

"Really?" Ranma asked, looking at her curiously.

"Yep. We're going to meet up with the second child and EVA 02 at the Pacific fleet." Misato said, sipping some of her beer.

"Pacific fleet? As in a naval fleet?" Shinji asked, curiously.

"Yeah. They're the U.N. second fleet. They're transporting the EVA for us." Misato explained.

Ranma got up, walking over to the sink and splashing himself with cold water before sitting back down.

"Why did you do that?" Misato asked, looking at her in surprise.

"'cuz if I don't, with my luck our chopper'll crash just to get me wet." Ranma said, going back to eating.

Misato laughed. "I guess you're right." She said, remembering several incidences where water seemed to be magnetically drawn to Ranma. "Oh right. You two are both allowed to bring guests. I suppose those two friends of yours are coming along?"

Shinji shrugged while Ranma nodded. "Kensuke'd never forgive us if we let him miss out on seeing a real naval fleet."

"Yeah." Shinji said, letting himself smirk. "And wherever you go, Touji goes."

"Don't remind me." The pigtailed martial artist grumbled, looking down at her body sourly. As she looked up, a strange look came over Misato's face, and she leaned closer to the redhead.

"Um, Misato?" Ranma asked, kind of nervous as she currently had a clear line of sight down the older woman's shirt.

""This might sound like a strange question, but are you wearing contacts?" Misato questioned.

"Contacts?" Ranma asked, reaching up to her temples for where Ritsuko usually put the contacts for EEG scans.

"No. I don't mean like that." The purple haired woman explained. "I mean like contact lenses."

Ranma shook her head. "No, why?"

Misato grabbed her chin and tilted her head so that she could get a better look at her eyes. "That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Ranma, your eyes are brown."

"No. They're blue." Ranma said, shaking her head slightly in order to get Misato to let go of her chin. Reluctantly taking a compact that Misato offered, she looked into her face, and saw a red haired girl staring back, wearing a perplexed expression that was far too cute for her own liking. Looking into her eyes, she saw dark brown orbs staring back. "Now that's just plain weird." She muttered, handing the mirror back. "I'll have to ask the doc about it some time."

Misato nodded, slipping the mirror back into her pocket. "Well. You two had better go and call your friends."

Ranma and Shinji nodded, walking to their rooms to grab their cell phones, which had been left by their beds.

"Hey Kensuke." Ranma said, as the phone she was using was picked up from the other end.

"Sorry Ranma. This is Daisuke. What can I do for you?" Came the voice of an older man, who sounded like he'd just woken up.

"Oh. Well, Misato's taking me n' Shinji to meet the second child on an aircraft carrier, and Kensuke's really into the military so I figured…"

"Oh. Alright." Daisuke said, pulling the phone away from his ear. Ranma could hear him calling Kensuke through the line. About fifteen seconds later, Kensuke picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kensuke. It's Ranma. Me 'n Shinji are going to see the second child at the second U.N. fleet today…"

Ranma was cut off by Kensuke's excited shout. "The second fleet? You mean the one with the pre-second impact flagship?"

"I don't know." Ranma said, confused. "So do ya wanna come, or not?"

"I'll be right over!" The military fanatic yelled, hanging up the phone.

"I guess that's a yes." Ranma muttered, pressing the off button on her cell phone and tossing it into her pocket.

HR.

Later that day, Ranma, Touji and Shinji were sitting in a helicopter, watching as Kensuke bounced around it like a ping pong ball.

"Wow. I can't believe I'm actually in a Mig 55-D transport helicopter." He said, poking his head over the back of the pilot's seat. The rather annoyed pilot pushed him back into the passenger cabin. "It sure is good to have friends with connections."

Ranma laughed. "Hey Misato. How long do you think it'll take for us to get there?"

Misato looked at her watch. "We should be there in about five minutes. In fact, we should be able to see the fleet soon."

Just as Misato said it, the lead ship of the 2nd fleet came into view. Kensuke shoved his way into a window, videotaping the carrier with his camera. "That's the USS Harry S Truman, Nimitz class. She's a vintage ship from before second impact!"

"You mean a relic." Misato said, looking at the old ship.

A few minutes later, the helicopter touched down on a spot near the back of the Truman's flight deck.

HR.

"I can't believe we're escorting a bunch of kids and their toy across the ocean." Captain Jonathan Hunt complained, as he watched the helicopter full of NERV personnel and guests land. "And look. They even brought a plug for the toy."

"Well. It is better than a base posting." His first officer commented, handing him the mission orders that the ship had just been faxed.

Grabbing the orders out of his first officer's hand, Captain Hunt read them over. "Great. Their Captain Katsuragi has command authority during an emergency, otherwise it's my show. What are the chances of an emergency during a cake walk assignment like this, anyways?

HR.

A few hundred miles away, a fast moving object gave the angelic equivalent of a sneeze.

HR.

Back on the deck of the Truman, the helicopter had taken off, leaving Misato, Shinji, Ranma, Touji and Kensuke, along with a massive spool of cable that it had released as it left.

"So where's this second child?" Ranma asked, looking around.

"There she is." Misato said, pointing at a red haired girl who was walking towards their group, wearing a yellow dress. "I'd better introduce you. Ranma, Shinji. This is Asuka Langley Soryu. Exclusive pilot of EVA unit 02. Asuka, these are Ranma Saotome, Pilot of Unit 01 and Shinji Ikari, Unit 01's backup."

Asuka smiled at them. "So this is the famous Engel third child?" She asked, looking at Shinji.

The Ikari boy looked rather nervous as the redhead studied him intently.

"Um… I'm the third child. I think." Ranma said, uncertainly.

"You?" Asuka asked, looking curiously at Ranma. "I could have sworn that they said the third child was a boy. Oh well. The more girls on the team the better. Of course I'm a better pilot than you but… we could still be friends."

Ranma sputtered. "W…what? Whada ya mean you're a better pilot than me?" She yelled.

Asuka smirked. "Well. I have got a sync rate of sixty and I'm using the newest production model. Don't feel too bad."

Ranma looked confused. "Last time I checked I had a sync rate of eighty percent, right Misato?" She asked, looking curiously at the older woman.

Misato winced.

"What! A sync-rate of eighty! You're lying!"

Ranma shrugged. "No. Why? Is that really good or something? I think Shinji's is about 72."

Asuka just stood there, sputtering.

As the children got acquainted, an older man walked up to Misato, his hands in his pockets.

"Kaji?" Misato asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

As the older woman said that name, Asuka turned from staring bug eyed at Ranma to look at Kaji. "Kaji!" She said, happily.

"Hello Misato." The man said, smiling at Misato widely. "It's nice to see you again."

Misato's own replying smile was a little bit strained. "So, you came to escort your charge?" She asked, cooly.

"Well, sort of." Kaji replied, evasively. At a raised eyebrow from the woman, he continued. "I've been assigned to Tokyo 3."

Misato's eye ticked slightly. "Well, in that case," She said, in an overly sweet sounding voice, "You can take care of the children while I go report to the Truman's captain."

Kaji wanted to object, but the NERV officer had turned away from him too quickly. "I'll be back in a bit." She said, talking to the EVA pilots.

Shinji and Ranma just nodded, while Touji just stood behind them and Kensuke was off somewhere, taking video footage of an aircraft that was sitting on the deck.

HR.

Later that day, the group was sitting around a table, eating lunch. The children were sitting together on one end of the table, Asuka closest to the middle, while Kaji and a much more annoyed looking Misato were sitting at the other.

"I can't believe that..." The woman muttered, stabbing at her food angrily with a fork. Kaji was pretty sure it wasn't him she was talking about. Erm, at least, with the way she was waving the utensil around, he hoped it wasn't him.

"Hey Ranma." Shinji said, picking up a French fry on his own fork. "Aren't you going to change back? I mean we're on the ship now."

Ranma shrugged. "I guess I forgot. I probably should, even just ta show Asuka what she's going to be in for, hanging around us."

Asuka blinked. "Change back? What are you talking about?"

"Well. I have this curse." Ranma started, before Misato interrupted.

"It'd be easier to show her." She said, pushing her half-finished cup of coffee over the tabletop.

Ranma shrugged. "I didn't really wanna do it in the middle of a crowded room but whatever." Asuka was about to yell about Ranma pouring hot coffee on herself when the girl in front of her grew about an inch and her hair turned black. Her brown eyes also changed to a bright shade of blue. "It's called a Jusenkyo curse. Cold water turns me into a girl and hot water changes me back. Before you ask, I'm a guy."

Asuka blinked several times, and then slowly reached a hand out, tapping Ranma on the left side of his chest. He just sat there, letting her do it and not saying a word. He'd gotten used to this process. "Got it out of yer system yet?" He casually asked, after she'd stopped.

Asuka slowly nodded, leaning back into her chair. The only reason she wasn't freaking out was because Kaji was on the other end of the table, and she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of him. Also, though she wouldn't admit this at the moment, her weirdness sensor had pegged and refused to work anymore. She would have to deal with it later.

"So, do you two want to go see my EVA?" Asuka asked, her voice ever so slightly uneven.

Ranma and Shinji just shrugged, following Asuka as she left the lunch room.

HR.

A little while later, the three pilots were standing in the hold of a transport vessel, looking up at the form of Unit 02, which was sitting in a modified EVA cage.

"It's red." Shinji commented, stating the obvious. "I didn't expect that."

"That's not all that's different about this EVA unit. It's the first production series Evangelion. You two pilot the test type. That's probably why it Syncs so well with untrained people like you." Asuka said, smirking proudly. Showing off her EVA had managed to bring her back to a form of reality that didn't involve magical curses. The fact that it did involve giant, cybernetic mecha was calmly but firmly ignored.

Ranma frowned. "Are you insulting Unit 01?" he asked, angrily.

Asuka blinked. "What's the matter? It's just a machine. Unit 02 on the other hand." She was interrupted by a loud rumbling sound, followed by a shudder from the deck below her.

"What the heck was that?" Shinji asked, looking fearful.

"It was a shock wave." Asuka said, running towards her EVA unit. "We're under attack. C'mon!"

The two boys ran after her, until she pulled a large dufflebag down from a locker in one corner of the room. Digging around in it, she produced two red plug suits.

"We're going to launch in unit 02, put this on." She said, tossing the second suit vaguely in Ranma and Shinji's direction.

The two boys looked at the one extra plugsuit. "You go." Shinji said, quickly. "I know you like piloting the EVA units more than I do."

"You sure?" Ranma asked.

"Would you hurry up!" Asuka demanded, heading into a small dressing room that was next to the locker. Ranma shrugged, headed into the room himself, and got slapped in the face by an irate, and half-undressed, redhead.

"What was that for?" he asked, holding his cheek.

"No peeking." Asuka yelled, pulling a curtain across the door. Ranma noticed that there was a slight gap at the edge of the curtain, but shrugged it off as he prepared to put on the plug suit. Holding it up against his body, he saw that there was no way in heck that he'd manage to fit into it as a guy.

"Erm, Shinji, I'm gunna have ta change and get dressed out here, and this ship's not very sturdy, so ya may wanna get out of here and head for the life boats or something."

"Right," The brown haired boy said, heading for the stares that lead back to the deck as Ranma dug a bottle of water out of Asuka's duffle bag.

The martial artist was assured that his friend wouldn't peak by the speed with which Shinji had left, so the high pitched gasp that came when he dumped the water over his head was easily traced back to Asuka. She sighed in annoyance, but didn't turn around as she slipped the red plugsuit on, tapping the wrist-seal.

HR.

Five minutes later, Ranma and Asuka were sitting in unit 02's entry plug and Asuka was running through the start up sequence in German. Stopping half way through, she looked angrily at Ranma. "Think in German!"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking at her.

"I said think in German. Your Japanese is screwing up the interface."

Shrugging, Ranma started trying to think in German. 'Let's see here, Frankferter, shnitzle, sour kraut, strudel...'

"I said German, not food!" Asuka said, before sighing and slamming her hand down on the panel in front of her. "Restarting with base thought language in Japanese."

After a few more seconds, Asuka yelled. "EVA Launch!"

HR.

Misato stood on the bridge of the Truman, looking through a window as a large shape cut through the water, slamming into one of the cruisers on the edge of the fleet. "I believe that this counts as an emergency, don't you?" She asked, turning to Captain Hunt.

He glared at her for several seconds, before the shuddering boom of another ship caused him to reluctantly nod.

"All right. Prepare EVA two for…" Misato started, before she saw EVA unit 02 standing on top of the transport that was supposed to be carrying it. "Well then. Just set up the EVA power socket on the landing deck and put me through to Asuka."

"The Radio room's got a line to the Evangelion now, ma'am." A rating said, as he tapped a few buttons on his panel.

"Asuka, are you there?" Misato asked, after removing the bulky handset that was attached below the windows on one side of the bridge.

"I'm here." Asuka responded.

"I want you to get Unit 02 over to the Truman. Remember. You're using B-type Equipment and it's useless under water so don't fall in."

Asuka acknowledged and Unit 02 began hopping from ship to ship in the fleet, headed for the Truman.

HR.

For Ranma, being inside of Unit 02 felt strange. It was kind of like being in Unit 01, however her connection to the EVA was much weaker and she could feel Asuka's mind controlling the Machine as well as hers. Since Asuka was the proper pilot of the EVA, she tried to leave it mostly alone.

After about five minutes of playing leap ship, Unit 02 was sitting on the deck of the Truman. In that time, the angel had destroyed two more ships, and now it was headed for the carrier and EVA Unit 02.

"Let's do this!" Asuka said, charging towards the edge of the flight deck.

"But we don't have any weapons." Ranma objected, as Asuka stood at the edge of the deck, waiting for the angel to attack.

"All we need to take this thing down is a Prog knife." Asuka said, unsheathing the giant knife from its sheath on her EVA's shoulder.

That's one big fish." Ranma commented, as the angel jumped at the EVA, trying to knock it off of the carrier's deck.

Asuka quickly stepped backwards to avoid it, almost tripping over her power cable. "No comments from the peanut gallery, Engel! She growled, with a glare that Ranma couldn't see since she was facing forward.

HR.

As the EVA faced off against the angel on the carrier's deck, Kaji stood in a cabin, talking on a phone. "… I wasn't expecting an angel to attack when I accepted this mission!" he yelled, fear clearly audible in his voice.

"Well. I'm sorry that I can't predict the future." The man on the other end said, sarcastically. "Ikari's got three EVA Pilots and EVA Unit 02 in that fleet, and you can just escape if things get too hot to handle."

"I guess you're right." Kaji said, falling against a wall as the ship shook from the battle raging on its flight deck. "But why do I have to transport this thing to Ikari anyways?"

The man on the other side of the connection snorted. "You aren't transporting it to Ikari. You're transporting it to Ikari for Me, and you're the one who's doing it because you're expendable."

"Oh. I'm glad I'm so loved." Kaji said, sarcastically. Just as he said that, the phone connection went dead. Cursing, he picked up the black brief case off of his bed and walked out of the room, headed for the ship's hanger.

HR.

Misato looked worriedly at Unit 02 as it dodged another pass by the angel, only making a shallow slice into its hide with it's prog knife.

"So far your toy isn't having much more luck than our fleet's guns." Captain Hunt said, his face clouded with a mixture of worry and contempt.

"The EVA can do this." Misato said, watching as the angel tried to knock the EVA off of the deck again.

"Hey." Touji said, from his position at the back of the bridge. "Where's that Kaji guy going?"

"What?" Misato asked, walking over to the window that Touji was looking out of to see Kaji launching in an ancient Russian Jump Jet holding a black case in his lap. "He's running away?" She asked, glaring hotly at the steadily decreasing dot as the jet left the area.

HR.

Back in EVA unit 02, Asuka was getting frustrated with the angel's game of dodge the prog knife. "That's it!" She yelled, charging towards the edge of the carrier and jumping off towards the angel.

"Wait." Ranma protested, remembering a comment that Misato had made at the beginning of the battle. "I thought B-type Equipment doesn't work underwater!"

"You never know until you try." Asuka said, as the EVA hit the surface of the water, heading straight towards the angel. Extending her foot in a kick, Asuka was shocked when the angel opened it's mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth. "It's got a mouth?" She asked, surprised.

"It's a giant fish, of course it's got a mouth." Ranma commented, as she tried to take control of Unit 02 and throw them clear of the mouth opening, only to find that she couldn't get very much control while Asuka was piloting, and only slowing down her reaction rate.

HR.

"The Evangelion unit has been taken into the angel's mouth!" A technician on the bridge of the aircraft carrier reported, sitting in front of a sonar station.

"Does that mean it was… eaten?" Captain Hunt asked, his eyes wide.

"Just like a fish on a line." Kensuke said, mournfully.

"Wait a second. A fish on a line." Misato muttered, an idea beginning to form in her mind. It was crazy, but it just might work. "Captain. I need your help." Misato said, outlining her plan to the captain of the carrier.

HR.

"You're insane!" Captain Hunt yelled, looking at Misato as if… well, she was insane. "You want me to sink the only two battleships I've got left in order to stop this thing?"

"If you don't, it'll do it for you!" Misato yelled, getting annoyed at the man's constant doubting of her and the EVAs' abilities. "We just sink the two battle cruisers on the axis of the EVA's power cable and get Ranma and Asuka to open the angel's mouth for us. The ships enter, and fire their bow turrets. It's the only way to beat this thing."

The captain sighed in resignation, rubbing his head. "Order the Illinois and the Kentucky to place scuttling charges and then begin abandoning ship." He ordered, in a resigned voice.

"Asuka, Ranma. Did you hear that?" Misato asked, talking over a comm. Channel that had been open ever since she had started to explain her plan.

"Got it." Asuka answered, Ranma following shortly after with a "Right."

HR.

Back in the entry plug of the EVA, Ranma and Asuka were desperately trying to get its arms to move, in order to pry open the angel's mouth. Unfortunately, the type B equipment was living up to its reputation, and refused to work under water.

HR.

Back on the surface, Misato was getting worried. The two ships had been scuttled several seconds ago and the angel's mouth wasn't opening. If the mouth didn't open, the ships couldn't be forced inside it and the odds of destroying the angel were greatly reduced. Also, if the mouth wasn't opened then Unit 02 would be in it when the blast went off and there was a chance that it would be destroyed.

"Status on the angel's mouth?" Misato asked, looking at the sonar operator.

"Still closed, Ma'am." The tech reported, looking nervously at his screen. "The ships will hit the angel in approximately fifteen seconds."

"Asuka, Ranma! You've got to hurry." Misato said, worried.

"We're trying." Asuka's voice came back, sounding strained.

HR.

In the plug, the pilots were beginning to panic. The EVA refused to move, no matter how many orders Ranma or Asuka gave it, and time was running out. Closing his eyes to try and synchronize better, Ranma had an idea. Concentrating on his AT field, he forced it out of the EVA and used it as a pry bar, forcing the angel's mouth open. About five seconds before the two battle cruisers entered the angel's mouth, Unit 02 drifted out of it, being reeled up to the surface of the water.

A few minutes later, Asuka punched the eject button for the entry plug and it slid out of the EVA, just a few inches from the surface. The two pilots swam out of the entry plug and to the surface, gasping for breath as they reached it. Hauling themselves onto a boat that was driven by some crewmen from the carrier, they quickly dried themselves off before being sent up to the deck of the carrier.

HR.

When they got to the flight deck, Ranma and Asuka found the group from NERV there, Misato grinning at them. "Nice work you two." She said, relieved.

Ranma and Asuka both wore big cocky smirks.

"You know," Shinji commented, looking between the two, "You two almost look like twins right now."

"Huh?" They both said, turning and looking at each other. Shinji was right. Ranma, in girl form, was wearing one of Asuka's red plug suits and it hugged her curves just as well as it did Asuka's. Add in the fact that her hair was also red, coupled with the smirks the two were wearing and it was almost scary.

Ranma laughed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

Asuka fumed. "I look much better than that... thing, over there!"

Shinji just backed off, grinning nervously.

HR.

At NERV headquarters, Kaji stood in front of Gendo's desk, holding a black briefcase. "Here it is." He said, laying the case on the table.

Gendo typed a code into an electronic lock on the front of the case, and it opened to reveal what looked like a human embryo encased in some sort of plastic. "It is unfortunate that this had to be brought here before the proper time." He muttered, tapping the plastic sheathing with one finger.

"Why is that?" Kaji asked, looking curiously at Gendo.

"One of our EVA Pilots is almost certainly some type of angel. If he were to accidentally come into contact with this, the results could very well be... unfortunate." Gendo said. To Kaji, who was very good at reading people, the older man looked worried. Given who Gendo was and what he controlled, that was a terrifying concept.

"Well you only have to hold it for a short while, right?" The ponytailed man asked, looking at the thing in the case with some fear now.

"Yes but any time is too long." Gendo said, closing the case and handing it back to Kaji. "Deliver this to one of the lower level vaults, and do not approach terminal dogma any closer than is necessary."

Kaji nodded, walking out of the office.

HR.

The next day, Ranma, Shinji, Touji and Kensuke were walking to school, talking animatedly.

"I feel sorry for you guys." Kensuke said, looking pityingly at the EVA pilots.

"Why?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

"You two have to deal with that Asuka girl all the time." Kensuke said, flinching.

"Yeah." Touji agreed, nodding. "She may look nice but she sure doesn't act like it."

Ranma shrugged. "She isn't really all that bad. The only thing about her that annoyed me was how she kept insulting Unit 01. From what I saw when she was Piloting her EVA, she's pretty good."

Kensuke grinned. "Planning to add another girl to your collection, Ranma?"

"Collection?" Ranma asked, looking around in case some fiancées were about to pop out of previously unseen woodwork.

"You know. Rei and Misato." Kensuke said, nudging him in the side.

"I told ya. It's not like that!" Ranma yelled, as the three walked into the school.

HR.

Later that morning, right before class started, Ranma heard the class room door open and saw Asuka walk in, wearing a school uniform dress. "Hello. I am Asuka Langley Soryu." She said, bowing towards the class. After her introduction, she settled into the seat next to Rei, across from Ranma's group.

HR.

At lunch, after Ranma had slept through all three morning classes and gotten away with it for once, Asuka got up and stopped Rei before she could leave the room. "Hi. You're the first child, right? Rei Ayanami?"

Rei nodded.

"Do you want to eat lunch with me?" Asuka asked, smiling at her.

"I usually eat lunch with Ranma-kun. You may join us if you would like." Rei responded.

"Sure." Asuka said. The first child seemed kind of shy, but she was friendly enough. Shrugging, she picked her lunch up off of her table and followed Rei to the front of the room, where Ranma was standing.

"Hey Rei. What took ya so long. I'm hungry." The boy said, straightening up from his leaning position against the door.

"Asuka san wished to eat lunch with us." Rei answered, gesturing towards the German girl.

"All right." Ranma said, leading the way out to the back of the school, and to the tree where He and Rei usually ate lunch.

Sitting down there, the three children ate their lunches in silence, until Asuka spoke up. "Hey Engel, I was wondering. Why did you get so mad when I said the test type was inferior to the production models?"

Ranma stiffened. "I wish you wouldn't call me that." He muttered, before answering her question. "Unit 01's done pretty well for herself in battle, and I think insulting the abilities of people you haven't even seen fight is a bad idea."

"People?" Asuka asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Ranma-kun believes his EVA is alive. Seeing the results he has achieved with it, I am beginning to consider the possibility that the point of view may have merit." Rei said, taking a bite of her lunch.

"You think your EVA is alive? What do you do, talk to it?" Asuka asked, laughing.

"Not really. Sometimes I do but we usually just kinda communicate on the emotional level. It's helped my Sync rate a lot." Ranma explained.

Asuka looked interested. "So doing this helps you Sync with an EVA better?"

"I have noticed a marginal increase in my Synchronization since I started trying to do what Ranma-kun does." Rei responded, looking at Asuka. "Judging from it's response to me, My EVA doesn't seem to bare me any good will."

"Oh yeah. I forgot to ask you this before." Ranma said, snapping his fingers as if he'd just remembered something. "I managed to get one of the security teams to let me practice in the NERV Gymnasium on their practice times. Do you wanna join me?"

"To practice martial arts?" Rei asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Ranma said, smirking at her. "I figure it couldn't hurt, right? Not to mention that some of those meditation exercises you're doing require you to do some physical stuff later on."

"I would like to practice with you. It would be… nice." Rei said, hanging for a few moments before saying the final word.

Looking between Rei and Ranma, Asuka's face developed a knowing grin. "So, our first child likes our Engel, does she?"

Rei looked at Asuka, confused, while Ranma blushed slightly. "I do not dislike any of the pilots." She said, factually.

Just as Asuka was going to respond, the bell to end lunch period rang and the three headed in to the school.

END.

Notes. Yes, in the series the carrier Misato and the pilots were on was named the "Over the Rainbow." I'm sorry, but I cannot take a warship with a name like that seriously, it just cannot be done! In order to remedy that, I originally renamed the ship the "Horseman." In this rewrite, I chose to change the name to the USS Harry S. Truman, which, according to a friend of mine who should know this stuff, is the correct name for a ship with the "Over the Rainbow's" hull numbers.

Guy who should know what he's doing: If you don't believe me, look at the battle plan diagram during the episode. The hull number for the carrier and the two battleships is shown. All three ships really do have names associated with them.

Two Pair

Chapter 13, Two Pair.

Ranma sat in an examination room at NERV HQ, fidgeting nervously. It had been a few days since the incident on the aircraft carrier and she had finally gotten around to asking Dr. Akagi to take a look at her. Strangely, the Doctor seemed rather upset at the change in Ranma's girl side's eye color, having been muttering implications about careless idiots ever since Ranma had told her that the change had happened three days earlier, and immediately dragging the young martial artist off for a full, hour and a half long, examination.

"Well doc," Ranma asked, sliding off of the examination bed she had been lying on. "Ya know what's wrong with me yet?"

Ritsuko, who was in the corner of the room studying some readings on a computer screen, shook her head. "There's nothing physically wrong with you. The pigmentation of your eyes has just changed. I haven't gotten results from your genetic tests yet, however."

"Well. If I'm okay, I guess I can leave then, right?" Ranma asked, walking for the door.

"Yes, just be sure and report anything similar to this as soon as it happens, understood?" Ritsuko said, giving her a hard glare.

"Um, yeah, got it," Ranma returned, not wanting to admit that the scientist actually kind of scared her when looking at her like that, and exiting the room rapidly.

HR.

After snagging some hot water, Ranma walked down to the Gym where NERV's security teams practiced in order to get a few quick spars in. The teams didn't really have many people in them who were skilled martial artists, and even fewer who would willingly fight, and usually lose to, a fourteen year old, however Ranma had found a few sparring partners who he could have a satisfying fight against as long as he didn't use any Chi magnified strength or speed.

Walking into the Gym, he caught sight of a large man in the corner who was working out on a weight set. "Hey Axel!" He yelled, walking over to the man.

The man, who's name was Axel Swanson, was one of the few security men who would willingly fight Ranma on a regular basis. Putting up his weights, he smiled at the smaller boy. "So, you've come back to be beaten, have you Saotome?"

"You wish!" Ranma said, smirking as he assumed a fighting stance in the middle of a mat nearby. Putting up his weights, Axel joined him. A few seconds into the fight a small crowd had gathered around the two, as the fight was quite spectacular. Dodging back from one of Axel's powerful punches, Ranma flipped and pushed off of the ground, going over the older man's head and kicking backwards, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The crowd roared in approval as Axel got back up, rubbing his head. With a feral grin he leapt back into the fray.

HR.

About five minutes later, Axel was lying on the ground again and raised a hand in surrender. Ranma was panting, due to the fact that the older man was at least twice his size and he had thrown him a few times, but gladly offered him a hand up.

"Ranma-kun." A voice called out, and the crowd around the two men parted to reveal Rei, dressed in a plugsuit and smiling one of her small smiles at Ranma. "Are you ready to train me?"

Ranma smiled at her and nodded before the two children moved over to the corner of the gym.

Ranma had been quite surprised in the few days that he had trained Rei. Her seemingly instant memorization for school subjects seemed to carry over to the Kata and forms he was teaching her and he had to spend very little time on the basics of the art. The only fields she really needed training in was her endurance and strength, and Ranma wasn't about to use his father's methods for building those up so getting Rei to top strength could take a while.

Ranma had trouble concentrating on Rei's sparring instead of her body as they practiced though since the only clothing that she had which were even remotely suited for fighting was her plug suit, and it was very… revealing.

Since Ranma had quite accidentally received a full view of Rei's unclothed body less than a month earlier, the more normally repressed portions of his mind took great delight in flashing teasing images right in the middle of complex moves, or while the two were in the middle of a grapple.

After a short run through of warm up Kata, Ranma and Rei began to spar. This was a part of Ranma's training that the security men liked to watch, as the two seemed to flow together like two parts of a jigsaw puzzle as they moved.

Ranma was holding back much less than he had when they first started, as Rei's abilities were growing at an impressive rate. For every attack he threw she would have a block or counter ready. With his greater speed, he would have his own block and the match would continue, neither of them really landing a blow, until they agreed to stop.

As Ranma and Rei wound down, they heard clapping from beside them. Turning, they saw Misato standing there with a big grin on her face. "That was great!" She said, enthusiastically. "I wish I could do that."

"Hey Misato." Ranma said, rubbing the very thin layer of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead off onto his hand.

"Hello Misato-san. Thank you for the complement." Rei said quietly.

"No. I really was impressed. That looked pretty cool." Misato said, before becoming serious. "I'm sorry but the reason I came here is because there's another Angel coming. It'll get to Tokyo 3 in about an hour."

"Damn!" Ranma cursed, his relaxed state fading away. "Where're Shinji and Asuka?"

"They're on their way." Misato said, as the three walked towards the door of the Gym and out into the hall. "This thing looks like your specialty, Ranma. It's a hand to hand angel, by the looks of it."

Ranma smirked as the three entered the area where the EVA cages were, and he walked off to get into his plug suit.

HR.

After suiting up, Ranma stood beside Asuka and Rei in front of the EVA units. Shinji stood next to Misato, who was looking at the three of them. "I don't think we need all three EVAs in this mission. Ranma, you take Rei and…" She started, before being interrupted.

"Why do the Engel and Rei get to have all the fun? This is the first angel battle since I got to Japan. Let me participate!" Asuka complained, looking angrily at the other two.

"Well," Misato started, uncertainly. After weighing the alternatives, she decided to put Asuka's supposedly more advanced training to the test. "All right. Asuka, you take Unit 02 with Ranma."

"Right." Asuka said, walking towards Unit 02's entry plug.

HR.

About 15 minutes later, Units 01 and 02 had been loaded onto transports, and were being moved towards the angel's current location.

The two pilots had entered their entry plugs, and the EVAs were ready to drop. Within a few moments, Asuka came over Ranma's communication system. "Hey Engel. Just remember to stay out of my way out there, got it?"

"You want first shot then?" Ranma asked, curiously.

"Yeah. It'll be the only shot, too." Asuka said, smiling proudly.

Just then Misato's face appeared on the screens in front of both pilots, looking angry. "What are you two talking about? You will both attack the angel at once and neutralize it."

"But that's not the way a real warrior fights!" Asuka objected, loudly.

"If this were a martial arts match, I'd actually agree with ya there," Ranma cut in before the Second Child could continue complaining." "This is more like a War. We've gotta take every advantage we can in order to win, and Misato probably knows more about the situation than we do, since she's got the MAGI and all of Central Dogma to help out with strategy." Ranma interrupted, trying to prevent an argument.

Asuka didn't respond.

A few seconds later, The two EVA Pilots heard Misato's signature shout of "EVAs Launch!" and the magnetic locks that held their EVAs onto the transports deactivated, sending them speeding towards the ground.

HR.

After the EVAs had hit the ground on a beach a few miles outside of Tokyo 3, the pilots caught sight of the angel. It looked sort of like a horizontal crescent moon with a human lower half poking out of the middle of it.

They stopped to take a long look at it, before Misato jolted them back to reality. "You're currently on backup power. Report to the field base and hook up to umbilicals."

"Right." the pilots said, quickly making their way across the beach to the base that was marked on a map displayed in each entry plug.

After getting her EVA hooked up, Asuka grinned. "Now, for my first EVA battle in Japan I'll show you how a REAL EVA Pilot fights!" Scooping up a progressive polearm that her transport had dropped with her, she charged at the angel with it held high in one hand.

"Asuka, wait!" Ranma yelled, following after her. Just as Ranma caught up to Asuka, having to repeat several tricky jumps on the buildings sticking out of the water to do so, she swung the tip of her weapon viciously into the head of the angel, cutting clear down its body.

"See that Engel? No wasted motion at all! Clean and efficient!" Asuka said, proudly.

"I don't think it's dead…" Ranma commented, his EVA's head looking around warily.

"Of course it is!" Asuka said exasperatedly, before feeling something grab onto her EVA.

"Asuka, look out!" Ranma yelled, as a smaller and reddish colored version of the angel grabbed Asuka's EVA and threw it into a hillside, hard. "Asuka! Are you okay? Answer me!" Ranma asked, as Unit 02 lay immobile on the ground.

"Erk, shut up Engel!" The second child snapped, hauling her EVA to its feet unsteadily. Unfortunately, the impact she'd taken had torn the umbilical out of Unit 02's back, smashing the end in the process, and there were no others in the immediate area.

"Asuka, you're down to emergency power. Retreat!" Came Misato's voice, ringing in the redhead's impact rattled ears like a set of church bells.

"N... No, I'm not going to lose, not now!" Asuka complained, charging at the small red angel angrily. Her hand impacted against the thing's core, but it seemed to regenerate almost instantly after she cracked it. Distantly, like static, she could hear Misato saying something.

"Ranma, can you get Asuka out? She's only got 3 minutes of power and I think her communications system's down!" NERV's strategic operations officer said, in a panic.

"Sorry Misato, but there're two of these things. If me 'n Asuka stop fighting, they're gunna be all over us." Ranma explained, deflecting a second small angel, this one the same color as the larger one, into the ground with his AT field.

Several minutes passed, and Asuka's power supply finally ran out. Ranma was the only pilot left with a functional EVA, and all he could do was stand and hold a protective AT field over both Unit 01 and Unit 02.

HR.

A few hours later, all of NERV's senior staff accept for Gendo were sitting around a table, with Ranma and Asuka at the end. Ritsuko was just finishing up a report. "And we recovered units 01 and 02 at 12:25 PM this morning. After that, the U N forces resumed operational control and dropped an N2 device on the angel, destroying roughly 30 percent of its mass. We predict that this will be regenerated within approximately six days."

Fyutsuki, who was in Gendo's normal place at the end of the table, slammed his fist down on its hard surface. "This was a total embarrassment for NERV! The UN completely humiliated us, and so did our own pilots!"

"Hey. That isn't really fair sir; I mean they tried their best." Misato objected, sticking up for the two children.

"They aren't here to try, captain. They are here to WIN and nothing else. That is all that matters. In fact, I believe that the planning on this mission could have been better as well. Why weren't three EVAs deployed?"

"Well, I felt that one should be kept back in case of a second attack." Misato said, though now her well planned policies seemed like nothing but flimsy excuses under the vice-commander's steely glare.

"The Magi said that the angel had a moderate threat potential. Two units should have been enough to handle it." Ritsuko interjected, trying to defend her friend.

"Well maybe the Magi need reprogramming." Fyutsuki snapped.

That's when Ranma lost it. A sharp cracking sound could be heard as he brought his fist down on the table and shattered a section of it. "Listen you old goat! We were sent out there with almost no data on the angel because we can't get any. If it hadn't have had that splitting ability Asuka's attack woulda killed it. How were we supposed ta know about that? It ain't our fault, it ain't Dr. Akagi's fault and it sure as hell ain't Misato's fault. As for it bein an embarrassment for NERV, I think the fact that ya use fourteen year old kids as pilots is bad enough, without expectin the impossible from 'em."

The entire room sat in stunned silence for a moment, Ranma slipping down in his chair again and wondering why he had just done that. It had just made him so angry when people who didn't deserve it were blamed for things, probably a remnant of his time in Nerima.

"Your objection will be noted, pilot Saotome." Fyutsuki said, standing up and walking out of the room stiffly.

HR.

Later that day, Misato was sitting at her desk, where a pile of paperwork rested. Getting frustrated with it, she buried her head in her hands. Hearing someone clearing their throat, she looked up to see Ritsuko standing above her with her arms crossed.

"Oh, hey Ritsuko." Misato said, straightening up.

"You have a lot of paperwork?" Ritsuko asked, looking over the stacks on her friend's desk.

"Yeah. The local governments are pretty pissed." Misato said, grimacing. "Apparently this," She gestured at the mass of paperwork, "all boils down to 'if you're going to have a battle, don't do it here.'"

Ritsuko laughed. "It's a good thing the commander wasn't here for this disaster. He would have sacked you without reading these first." She commented, flicking one of the papers with a finger.

"Yeah, and the worst part is that I've got no idea how to defeat this Angel. At this point, I'd be willing to ask the UN to drop another few dozen mines on it, but then I'm sure the government would crucify me." The strategic operations officer grumbled, letting her head fall back into the stack of paperwork. "I don't suppose my best and oldest friend can help me put together a plan to defeat this angel and keep my self from being thrown out on the street?"

The purple haired woman's voice was muffled during this last question, but Ritsuko just barely managed to make it out. Smirking, she removed a disk from her pocket. "Here you go."

Misato looked up and grabbed it greedily. "I knew you'd come through for me, Ritsuko!" She said, almost jumping up to hug the other woman.

"Actually, it wasn't me who came forward to help a friend in need. This is from Kaji-kun."

"This is from Kaji?" Misato asked, now looking at the disk as if it may bite her. "Oh well. It's my last hope anyways." Saying this, she slipped the disk into her computer and began reading over the operation plan. A small smile spread across her face as she read. "This just might work, but I think we need to make a little revision." Typing a few commands and snickering to herself, she turned the monitor to face Ritsuko.

The blonde's mouth turned down in a frown. "I wish you would stop playing match maker for those two."

Misato smiled. "But it's so much fun!"

Ritsuko just sighed exasperatedly, leaving Misato's office.

HR.

Later that day, Ranma walked into Misato's apartment, bumping into a large stack of boxes. "What the…" He muttered, stabilizing the stack before it could fall.

"Hey Engel! Be careful with my stuff!" Asuka's voice came out to him from deeper inside the house. Confused, Ranma walked into the apartment to see his bedroom door open with a box sitting next to it. Looking into the box, he saw his picture of his family, as well as his barbells and martial arts scrolls.

"Hey! What're ya doing!" Ranma asked, poking his head into his room to see Asuka emptying his dresser drawers and dumping the contents into another box.

"I'm getting all of your stuff out of my new room, Engel." Asuka responded, putting one of Ranma's new white Chinese shirts into the box.

"Your new… wadda ya mean by that?" Ranma yelled, angrily.

"Oh. Didn't you hear? You've been sacked and Misato san's living with me now. Of course, I'd rather live with Kaji-kun, but sacrifices must be made." Asuka said, smiling at him sweetly.

"I've been sacked? No way!" Ranma said, getting into Asuka's face.

"Relax, Engel. I'm only joking." The redhead said, handing Ranma the box she had been packing. "You're way too touchy."

Ranma sighed in relief. "So what is happening, then?"

"I don't know." Asuka said, shrugging. "I was just told to move my stuff here. I'm pretty sure that Misato-san can explain when she gets back."

"I hope so." The pigtailed martial artist muttered, setting the box he was holding on top of the one with his other possessions in it.

A few seconds later, Misato could be heard cursing as she bumped into the pile of boxes in the front entrance, Shinji close behind her.

HR.

After a few minutes of explanation, Ranma was confused and Shinji and Asuka were horrified.

"So you want these two to live together to do some sort of Synchronized attack on the angel?" Ranma asked, looking at Misato curiously.

"Yep. You and Rei will also be going through synchronization training, as you are the main pilot of Unit 01." Misato said, smiling at him.

"Wait a second!" Asuka yelled, cutting off any reply that Ranma may have made. "If I'm paired with the back up, doesn't that mean I'm on the reserve team?"

Misato nodded and Asuka was about to protest when she interrupted. "Ranma and Rei have been practicing Martial arts together for the last few days. They already have some training in synchronized movements together so it only makes sense that they be the primary team."

Asuka sighed in disappointment and glared at Ranma and Shinji.

"Um… Misato, if these two are living together here, then where do I live?" Ranma asked, giving voice to one of his major concerns.

"Oh. You're moving in to the apartment next door. Commander Ikari says that you're very capable of taking care of yourself, and I agree." Ritsuko had mentioned something about Misato missing having Ranma take care of her, however she wasn't going to mention that.

"Sounds all right to me." Ranma said, shrugging. "I can still hang around, right?"

Misato smiled at him. "Of course. I'd miss you if you didn't." After saying that, she reached into her pocket and took out a disk. "Oh, here's the music and movement routine that we want you and Rei to move to."

Taking the disk, Ranma nodded before walking out of the apartment with his boxes under his arm. Not living with Misato anymore was kind of disappointing, however if he lived by himself he would get warm baths in the morning and he could still visit Misato and the others.

Opening the door to the apartment next to Misato's, Ranma found himself staring into Rei's red eyes.

"Um, Rei. What're you doing here?" The pigtailed martial artist asked, nervously.

"I live here." The blue haired girl said, in a confused voice.

Suddenly, Ranma really disliked Misato.

HR.

Ranma Saotome woke with a vague feeling of something being wrong. Shrugging it off, he got dressed and exited his room, headed down the hall for a bath. Opening the bathroom door he noticed that there was no annoying penguin there for once. Smiling in delight, he ran himself a nice hot bath and sank into it up to his chin, determined to enjoy it while it lasted.

As he lay in the bath tub, he heard a shuffling sound and then the sound of a door opening. Dismissing it as Misato getting up after her usual night of binge drinking, he didn't bother to look over to the door… until something entered the water with him. Snapping his eyes open, Ranma stared into the face of an unconcerned Rei Ayanami, who was relaxing at the other side of the tub. He just sat there, open mouthed for a second before stuttering, "R…Rei? What are you doing here?"

"I am washing myself." Rei answered, finishing with her morning ablutions and standing up out of the water. Ranma averted his eyes, blushing.

After Rei had left the room, Ranma wondered where the mallet was. Snapping out of his state of shock, he ran the hot water out of the tub and turned on a cold shower full blast, cursing teenaged hormones as she shivered.

Scrubbing the droplets of cold water out of her hair, Ranma stepped out of the bath tub and went about getting ready for the day.

Walking out of the room, she noticed Rei sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal. Deciding that she really didn't want to cook this morning, Ranma pulled the box over and poured herself a bowl.

"So, what do ya want to do today, Rei?" She asked, taking a spoon full of her food.

"I don't know. Don't we have school today?" Rei asked, looking up at her in confusion.

"Nope. We get the next six days to prepare for the angel. All we've gotta do is memorize this weird Kata that Misato gave me so we've got some time to kill."

"I usually don't have such a large amount of free time. It is usually taken up by school or EVA training. Do you have any ideas?" Rei asked, curiously.

"I dunno." Ranma said, shrugging. "How 'bout we go wandering around and see what comes up. Sound good?"

Rei nodded and Ranma splashed herself with hot water before the two headed out, in perfectly synchronized steps so that they were practicing for the angel on the way.

HR.

Ranma Saotome and Rei Ayanami were drawing some rather strange looks as they walked down the street. They were dressed in plain clothes, well in Rei's case a school uniform; however they were marching as if they were soldiers who had misplaced their platoon.

"Hey Ranma!" Kensuke said, running up to the two. To his surprise, Ranma and Rei both locked their legs at the exact same time and turned towards him. "Creepy…" He muttered, looking at them strangely.

"Hey Kensuke. What's up?" The pigtailed boy asked, smiling at the other.

"Not much. I was actually looking for you or Shinji to hang out with, but he's not at home and obviously neither are you. Touji's gone off somewhere on a trip with his family and I'm kinda bored."

"Hey Rei, ya mind if we hang with Kensuke for a bit?" Ranma asked.

"I do not mind." Rei said, looking at the brown haired boy.

"She's coming?" Kensuke asked, throwing a curious glance at Ranma. Then he noticed that the two were holding hands. "Oh crap. I didn't interrupt a date or anything did I?"

Ranma blushed and scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "This is just training for the next angel. The thing can divide in half and we need two EVAs in perfect sync to destroy it." He blurted out, so eager to dispel the idea that he was on a date that he didn't stop to think the information may be classified.

"Cool!" Kensuke grinned, enthusiastic as always when it came to news about NERV. "So can I help you guys or anything?"

"Not really." Ranma responded, as the three began walking in a random direction. After a while, they stopped at a café for lunch.

HR.

Rather close by, Shinji and Asuka were having a far worse time of it. They were also drawing strange looks, but these ones were mostly generated by the fact that they were apparently having a very intense shouting match while holding hands. "Damn it backup! Stop throwing off my rhythm." Asuka yelled, glaring at Shinji.

"It isn't my fault." Shinji retorted, even his patience being exhausted by this point. "If you didn't keep trying to lead us everywhere…"

"Hey, it's Hikari!" Asuka interrupted, dragging Shinji over by the arm. The German redhead had made a fast friendship with Hikari, who seemed to be able to tolerate her rather rude manner about as well as Rei. Smiling happily, she walked up next to the other girl. "Hey Hikari. How're you doing?"

Hikari looked over to see her new friend Asuka, dragging Ikari san around by the arm. "I'm fine Asuka… but why are you doing that to poor Ikari-san?" She asked, concerned.

Asuka growled. "I have to. It's some sort of training for the next angel. I'd be perfectly willing to do it, accept I'm on the secondary team with backup over here."

"Oh." Hikari said, more confused than ever.

Asuka shrugged, falling into step with Hikari.

Beside her, Shinji sighed while attempting to match her gate with no compensation from her.

HR.

Ranma was currently learning something new about food. That was, that it tasted much better if you ate it slowly. This revelation came as he decided to try and copy Rei's rather slow and deliberate eating style. As he chewed on a slice of Pizza, a western delicacy that he liked about as much as Okonomiyaki, he caught sight of Shinji and Asuka, walking next to Hikari down the street.

"Hey Rei, look over there." Ranma said, pointing them out to the girl across the table from him.

"Hmm…" Rei stated as she looked in the direction that Ranma was pointing.

Just as the two noticed them, the group turned to come over.

"Rei, Engel." Asuka said, stepping on Shinji's foot as he tried to stand next to her, holding her hand.

"Hey second child, Shinji." Ranma said, noticing the latter's wince as Asuka's foot came into contact with his. "How's your Sync training going?"

"Oh, it's going great!" Asuka said, smiling happily.

"No it's not." Shinji countered, unhappily.

Asuka's smile faltered. "All right already. So it isn't going so good. I'd bet you and Rei aren't doing any better!"

"Actually, those two kinda scared me when I first met them." Kensuke laughed, setting his own slice of pizza down.

"I believe that we are doing rather well." Rei responded, seeming briefly to smirk… but that had to be Asuka's imagination… right?

After both Ranma and Rei had finished their food, they got up and marched off again, steps still in perfect sync. "I guess we're heading out." Ranma said, looking back over his shoulder.

"See ya in school in a few days." Kensuke responded, waving.

HR.

Later that day, Asuka stood in the living room of Misato's apartment, pacing back and forth angrily. Shinji sat on the couch, staring at her impassively.

"I can't believe the Engel's beating me again!" Asuka yelled, falling to the ground.

"Beating you? What do you mean?" Shinji asked, looking at her confusedly.

"This Synchronization thing. It's bad enough that I'm on the reserve team, but to have him and Rei show me up so badly…"

"I don't think they meant to." Shinji said, trying to defend the other two. "They've just got to do it in order to beat the angel."

"I'm supposed to be the one beating angels!" Asuka yelled, falling onto the couch with Shinji and letting out a resigned sigh. "And you don't even seem to be trying all that hard."

Shinji started guiltily. "Wh... what do you mean by that?" He asked, looking away from the redhead.

"It's like you're not even really trying, you're just letting me lead you around," Asuka returned, glaring sidelong at her partner. "Like you don't even care about this."

"I don't," Shinji muttered, so quietly that the Second Child almost missed it.

"What was that?" She demanded, leaning over him and glaring angrily.

"I... I don't really want to do this," Shinji answered. "You're upset about being on the backup team, but I like it. It means I get to be here, and have friends... and I don't have to pilot the EVA."

"That's got to be the most spineless thing I've ever heard!" Asuka yelled. "Well, you're not going to drag me down with you, got it?"

"I..." Shinji said, uncertainly.

"Look, it's fine with me if you want to molder in mediocrity like the wimp you are, but I'll find a way to do this synchronization thing without you, ..somehow, if I have to!"

"Hey, I'm not a wimp," The brown haired boy objected, for the first time since they'd gotten home showing some irritation.

"Then prove it," Asuka said, "And let's show those two what we can do."

"I guess so," Shinji said, as he slowly got up off of the couch, Asuka doing so much more quickly and sliding her copy of the music disk into the CD player.

HR.

"What do you think that banging noise is?" Ranma asked, leaning back on the couch in his and Rei's apartment.

"I don't know." Rei responded, reading a book in the corner. "It is coming from Misato san's apartment. Should we investigate the noise?"

"Nah." Ranma responded, laying further back on the couch. "It's probably just Shinji and Asuka or something."

HR.

The next day, Shinji and Asuka were sneaking through the halls of NERV, following Ranma and Rei. "This is a stupid idea." Shinji muttered, before being shushed by Asuka.

"No it isn't." The redhead whispered back, harshly. "We've gotta find out how they do this so well, and following them around is the best way to do it."

"Why don't we just ask them?" Shinji asked, before being bonked on the head by Asuka and shutting up.

HR.

"You know," Ranma commented as He and Rei were walking down the hall to the NERV Gym. "Shinji and Asuka are following us."

"They are?" Rei asked, resisting the urge to look behind her.

"Yep. How about we have a little fun?" Ranma asked, grinning mischievously.

Rei gave a small smile in return.

Raising his voice so that Shinji and Asuka could hear, Ranma said, "Well. I'll be right back, Rei. I've got to go and see Misato about something."

Rei nodded and Ranma walked away.

HR.

Quickly moving around a corner, Asuka just barely managed to avoid Rei's line of sight as she leaned against a wall. "Damn it, that was close." She muttered, panting.

"What was close?" Ranma asked, standing directly behind her, with Shinji snickering behind him.

"JAIYAA!" Asuka screamed, jumping.

Rei walked over to the group, lightly giggling. "That was fun, Ranma." She said, looking at the surprised expression on Asuka's face.

Growling, Asuka stomped off, dragging the still grinning and snickering Shinji behind her.

"Well. Let's go to the Gym." Ranma said, shrugging. Rei nodded and fell into step with him.

HR.

A few days later, Ranma rolled out of bed, walking groggily to the bathroom. After running a hot bath for himself he climbed in, enjoying the warmth of the water and allowing himself to wake up gradually. Unfortunately, Ranma never really remembered where he was until a good few minutes after he got into the bath, and as a result he had completely forgotten what had happened a few days before. Hearing the sound of the bathroom door opening, Ranma looked over to see Rei standing there. Not noticing that her room mate was staring at her like a dear caught in headlights, again, she dropped the towel that she was carrying in her hand onto a bar and stepped towards the tub.

"R… Rei? What're you doing?" Ranma stammered, finally managing to close his eyes.

"I am getting washed, as I was the last time you asked me that question in this situation. Why?" Rei asked, looking perfectly innocent.

"It… it isn't really a good idea for the two of us to be in a bath together…" Ranma stammered, the older and more rebellious parts of his brain cranking out dozens of scenarios where it WOULD be a good idea.

"Why?" Rei asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Have you not seen everything I have before? I don't see why I should be embarrassed."

Ranma just groaned, leaning back in the tub and desperately trying to suppress a nose bleed.

HR.

A few minutes later, Ranma was sitting in his room and looking at his picture of his family, more specifically Akane. He had been through the pervert's gauntlet MANY times in his life, and the only time a girl inspired thoughts of the type that Rei had just done was when He was in Nerima, with Akane.

Of course, then he had used a steady reassurance that she was "Uncute" and that no one could love a "Tomboy" like her as a way of suppressing them, but Rei was definitely cute… and she most certainly wasn't a tomboy. Shaking his head furiously again, Ranma dismissed all of those thoughts from his mind and placed the picture back on the top of his dresser. The rematch against the angel was in a few hours and he had to get ready.

HR.

In the apartment next door, Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Soryu were dancing, and doing it very well. After many days of painful collisions and foot stomping, they had finally succeeded. As the two got excited at the fact that they were doing it right for once, Asuka's foot drifted just SLIGHTLY out of place, at the same time as Shinji's leg over extended just a little bit, and the two fell to the ground in a tangled heap. Groaning, they picked themselves up, rubbing their heads. "This is your fault." They said in unison, glaring at each other.

"No it's yours!" They responded, and if Misato's laughter hadn't interrupted them they would have continued the argument.

"Well, I'm glad you've got the movements down, however you didn't really have to go at it that hard. I mean you're the backup team. Asuka looked down, having been reminded yet again that she wasn't going to be allowed to fight the angel. Shinji, on the other hand, grinned happily at the same thought.

HR.

That afternoon, Ranma and Rei were in their entry plugs, secured in the backs of their EVA units.

"All right you two." Misato said, sounding cool and professional, a sharp contrast from her usual tones. "Get ready. Remember, this operation is supposed to take sixty two seconds, no more."

Both pilots nodded, saying "Got it."

"EVAs Launch!" Misato yelled, and the two machines were off to the surface.

As the EVAs surfaced a musical score began to play and they moved forward in unison. The, currently single, angel charged towards them swinging its arms. EVA 00 parried its left arm, coming in with a punch to its gut, with the same motion repeated on the other side by EVA 01. The angel flew back, making a furrow in the ground. Getting up, the angel growled before trying to split in half.

"Now!" They both cried out, as Ranma charged the angel in unit 01, Rei following closely behind him. Just as the angel's core was splitting in half the two EVAs came down on it with knife hand chops from either side, causing it to shatter into pieces.

HR.

"Yeah!" Misato yelled, as the angel fell back to the ground, unmoving.

"Angel is silent." Maya reported from a station at the front of the control centre.

"We did it!" Aoba seconded. The room exploded into cheers as the EVAs on the screen in front of them took a bow, causing some laughter.

Asuka stood at the back of the control room, a strange look on her face.

END.

Yeah, sorry, no dramatic description of the final fight scene. Honestly, I didn't want to try and describe a perfectly synchronized moveset and muck up somewhere, so I'll leave it to your imaginations.

Please R&R, and tell me what you guys thought.

Swimming with angels

Chapter 14. Swimming with angels.

Gendo Ikari sat in his office, waiting for Dr. Akagi to arrive. He didn't know what she thought was so important, but he would wait to find out. Just as he was getting impatient, the woman walked in. "Dr. Akagi." He said, indicating the chair on the other side of the desk.

"Hello Commander." Ritsuko said, sitting down across from him. Setting some documentation in front of her she got straight to the point. "I want Pilot Saotome taken off of Unit 01."

"Why is that?" Gendo asked, flatly.

Ritsuko reached into one of the file folders in front of her chair and pulled out a picture, handing it to Gendo. "And what is this supposed to be?" Gendo asked, looking at the form of the red haired pigtailed girl in the picture.

"Do you see anything odd about her?" Ritsuko questioned, beginning to look impatient.

Gendo studied the picture closely. "Her eyes are brown." He said, putting it down on the table.

"Exactly. They're supposed to be blue, or at least they USED to be blue. Pilot Saotome's genetic code is changing, at least in his female form."

"His Genetic code?" Gendo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's beginning to resemble the EVA's original pilot, although the genetics still have his signature 99.89 variance."

Gendo seemed to consider for a moment. "The EVA's previous pilot, you mean…" He stopped, a strange look coming over his face.

"Ranma's female form's genetic pattern is altering into that of Yui Ikari, and it doesn't seem to be stopping. It seems to be occurring every time he takes damage in an EVA battle. For all I know he may start manifesting multiple personalities or something. We have to pull him out of Unit 01!"

"No." Gendo said, in a deadpan voice.

"But sir…" Ritsuko said, her eyes wide in surprise.

"Pilot Saotome will pilot the EVA unit until he refuses to do so anymore. Quite frankly, he's too useful to lose." Gendo said, looking at her evenly. "You can tell him of this if you wish, however if he still wants to pilot the EVA we won't stop him."

Ritsuko sputtered incoherently for a moment before sighing in frustration and walking out of Gendo's office. 'What the hell is that man thinking?' She thought, as she proceeded down the halls of NERV HQ.

Back in Gendo's office, he pulled out his picture of his wife and held the picture of the red haired girl up next to it. A small smile crossed his lips, a combination of wistful and hopeful.

HR.

Ranma sat in class, bored out of his mind. Staring up at the blackboard, he dutifully took notes, if only because he wasn't really tired. Glancing sideways, he caught a glimpse of Rei sitting across from him, Asuka at her side. As he looked, Asuka turned and glared at him, causing him to avert his eyes.

The girl had seemed to be angry at him ever since the attack of the splitting angel a week before and he couldn't figure out why. Sighing softly, Ranma dismissed the thoughts of the angry redhead and turned back to the front of the class just as the teacher stopped writing notes on the board and turned around.

"Remember, class. The school trip to Okinawa will be on Monday. Remember to pack a bathing suit for the beach." The teacher said, smiling brightly.

Much of the class perked up at this, including Asuka who hadn't heard about it previously, but Ranma just ignored it, and Shinji frowned as he was pretty sure that NERV wouldn't let the EVA pilots go. Rei just stared at the blackboard attentively, as usual.

A few seconds after the teacher's announcement, the bell rang, dismissing the students for the rest of the day.

As Ranma got up and fell into step with Rei, Asuka ran up next to them. "Did you hear that, you two?" She asked, actually smiling at Ranma for the first time in a week. "Finally I get to do something interesting in Japan. I'm a pretty good SCUBA diver, too."

"That's not really my thing." Ranma said, shrugging.

"Aw c'mon Engel. SCUBA diving is fun!" Asuka said, her smile slipping slightly.

"Oh, it ain't the diving that bothers me. It's the beach." Ranma said, a note of dread entering his voice.

Asuka looked puzzled for a moment before realization lit up her face. "Well, I LIKE that kind of attention. I guess it's just too bad for you." She said, smirking at him.

"What kind of attention, Ranma-kun?" Rei asked, looking at Ranma in confusion.

Before he could answer, Asuka interrupted. "The Engel doesn't want any boys hitting on him." She said, smirking evilly.

Ranma glared angrily at the redhead. "Jeez Asuka. How'd you react if a whole lotta girls started hittin on ya?"

Asuka nodded. "I guess you've got a point there. It's still funny as long as only you have to deal with it, though." She walked off, laughing.

Ranma growled at her. "I really hate her."

Rei just looked at him sympathetically before leading Ranma back towards their apartment.

HR.

That Sunday, Ranma and Rei were walking around the shopping district for something to do, when they saw Asuka, dragging an older man who Ranma dimly recognized as Kaji around the women's' clothing section.

The man caught sight of them, and seeing his salvation pointed them out to Asuka. A few seconds later the two were walking over to Ranma and Rei.

"Hey Engel, Rei." Asuka said, waving with the hand that wasn't holding a full shopping bag.

"Hello Asuka-san, Kaji-san." Rei said, Ranma following closely behind.

"So what're you doin here?" Ranma asked, in his usual tactless manner.

"I'm buying a swimsuit." Asuka said, seeing another way to poke fun at Ranma. "Do you have yours?"

Ranma growled. "Yeah, I do." He said, shortly.

Seeing the tension between the two, Kaji quickly interrupted. "So you two are going on the school trip with Asuka?"

Rei just looked back while Ranma shrugged.

"So, this is that guy you've got a crush on, huh?" Ranma asked, knowing that he probably shouldn't get satisfaction from the German's embarrassed blush, but not particularly caring.

Asuka's face turned bright red and she stomped off, dragging a protesting Kaji behind her.

"That was not very nice, Ranma kun." Rei said, looking at Ranma with a hint of amusement flickering in her eyes.

"She deserved it." Ranma said, shrugging and leading Rei to the food court for a snack.

HR.

Later that day, when Ranma and Rei were in their apartment studying for school, they heard something that sounded suspiciously like Asuka yelling "WHAT?"

"I wonder what that's about." Ranma muttered, looking over at the thin wall of the apartment.

"I would assume that Asuka san just found out something that she didn't like." Rei said. "Should we go and see what's wrong?"

Nodding in agreement, Ranma gratefully put down his physics book and the two walked over to the apartment next door.

"…What do you mean we can't go on the trip?" was the first thing they heard as they entered the apartment. Walking into the kitchen, they saw Asuka glaring at Misato, only a few inches away from her face.

"Just what I said." Misato said, looking slightly annoyed at the fact that Asuka was yelling into her face. "An angel could attack at any time. We need the EVA Pilots here."

"Then why not keep Engel and Rei here and let me and backup go?" Asuka asked, hopefully.

"We need all THREE EVAs, just in case. If you'd like we COULD let Shinji pilot Unit 02 and let you…" Misato said, trailing off at the end as she knew what was coming.

"There's no way backup's piloting my Unit 02!" Asuka yelled, getting back in Misato's face. "No one but me can pilot Unit 02!"

"Then you stay." Misato said, matter of factly.

"So we ain't goin on the school trip, then?" Ranma asked, from his position next to Rei at the door.

"I'm sorry Ranma but we need you here." Misato said, honestly looking regretful.

Shinji, who had been sitting back and silently hoping that Hurricane Asuka would blow over, spoke up at this. "Well, I kind of thought we wouldn't be allowed to go."

"Aw, aren't you well behaved, backup?" Asuka sneared, huffing.

"There are a few big pools at NERV where you can dive if you want, Asuka." Misato said, trying to calm the German girl down. Then, seeming to get an idea, she suggested "Maybe I can get Ritsuko to let you help with the maintenance of your EVA. You'd get plenty of diving in then." Seeing that the redhead's attention was turned to her again, and she was even more annoyed, NERV's tactical officer made a tactical retreat, leaving the room in order to go to the Geofront.

"Why didn't you complain, Backup? Are you a guy or what?" Asuka growled, looking disgustedly at the aforementioned Ikari.

Shinji just shrugged. "There's no point."

"What?" Asuka demanded, incredulous.

"He's right." Ranma interjected, causing Asuka to turn to him. "We've gotta stay here to watch for the Angels. It's what we're here for, after all."

"Why can't we… I don't know, attack them?"" Asuka grumbled, scuffing her foot on the floor. "I hate waiting for them all the time.

"NERV has not yet been able to locate any angels prior to them initiating an attack." Rei interjected.

"This really sucks." Asuka muttered, slumping down on a chair at the table. "And after I went out with Kaji-san and bought a new swim suit yesterday and everything."

"Hey, why don't all four of us go to a pool tomorrow? Go on our own trip." Ranma suggested, snapping his fingers.

Asuka looked up at him. "Huh?"

"Like Misato said, we just go down to the big pool at NERV and have some fun. It ain't the ocean, but it'll work." Ranma said, smiling at her.

"I believe that that would be fun." Rei said, lightly smiling as well.

"Backup, you in?" Asuka asked, looking over at Shinji.

"I… guess so." Shinji said, uncertainly.

"Fine. Then it's settled. Rei, Engel, don't be late." Asuka said, trying to make it seem like it had been her idea all along.

Sighing, Ranma nodded while Rei hid a small smile.

"Well, we'll see you tomorrow." Rei said, as the two left the apartment.

HR.

The next day, at the Mount Asama research institute, Misato Katsuragi stared at the window in front of her where a large mountain was shown. Turning to one side, she saw two institute workers, one male and one female, sitting in chairs at consoles, monitoring readings.

"So how's it looking?" She asked, looking over the man's shoulder.

"The probe is almost at its maximum depth." He reported, studying his instruments. "It can't find anything."

"Push it deeper." Misato ordered, looking at his screen. She was at the research institute due to a possible Angel sighting, however no results had been found yet.

"Ma'am. Going down any further might crush the probe." The woman protested.

"NERV will cover the costs of a destroyed probe. Push it deeper."

Sighing, the rather harried looking institute researcher acknowledged the order, manipulating her console.

A few minutes later both consoles went blank and filled with static. The man cursed. "We lost the probe."

"Did we find anything?" Misato asked.

He quickly went over the data logs that the probe had transmitted before its destruction. "Yes, we did. It registered a blue pattern."

Misato nodded before raising her voice so that it would reach all of the scientists who were still in the room. "All right listen up. There will be no further communications, as of this moment, this base is under NERV control."

There was a massive groan as most of the scientists' feared loss of valuable research data, but none of them were prepared to oppose the rather intense young woman with the NERV ID card and the handgun.

HR.

Several miles away, back at Tokyo 3, Ranma Saotome was having fun. Far too much fun, as a matter of fact. She and Rei were swimming laps in the pool, Asuka diving off of the diving board behind them. Catching sight of the only member of the EVA Pilots' group who didn't appear to be having fun, Ranma climbed out of the water and walked over to Shinji, who was hunched over a book, reading diligently.

"Hey Shinji. Whatcha doing?" The pigtailed redhead asked, kneeling down next to the boy.

"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking up from his book. "Oh. I'm studying for a physics test on thermal expansion and contraction."

Ranma blinked at him rather stupidly. "Huh?"

Asuka cut in from behind them. "Oh, that's easy." She said, kneeling on Shinji's other side.

"Says the girl who's doing as bad as I am in school." Ranma muttered, looking at Asuka.

"That's because I can't read your stupid writing system. There was nothing like that back in the German universities."

"University?" Rei asked, having just climbed out of the pool to join the other three.

"Ja. I've got a university diploma. That's why I can't figure out why they're making me go to school." Asuka said, smirking.

Just as Asuka was about to explain thermal expansion to Shinji, an alarm went off.

"Damn. What is it this time?" Ranma wondered, as the four children ran out of the NERV recreation area.

HR.

As they ran into central dogma, Misato, who had just gotten in on a flight from the research base, looked them over. "That's some very nice uniforms you've got there." She commented, smiling.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking down to realize that she was still wearing her one piece bathing suit. Looking over, she realized that everyone else was in relatively the same position. Blushing, the group of children quickly proceeded to the changing rooms.

About twenty minutes later, all four pilots stood in plug suits, Ranma having not been able to find any hot water and still female. In front of them, Misato stood in front of a large screen, on which was displayed some sort of slug looking creature.

"What the heck is that?" Asuka asked, her face contorting in disgust.

"That is the eighth angel." Misato responded, pointing to it. "It is currently in an inactive state, and we are going to attempt to capture it."

"WHAT?" The pilots said in unison, looking at her bug eyed.

Rei was the only one who refrained from the outburst. She was more patient and willing to hear the captain out

"Well, we need to find out more about the angels, and I don't think Ranma would take kindly to Ritsuko performing a biopsy on her or something."

Ranma flinched back visibly.

"So where is this Angel?" Asuka asked, curiously.

"It is inside Mount Asama." Misato said, flatly.

"Isn't that a volcano?" Shinji asked, sounding slightly panicked.

Just as he said this, Ritsuko entered the room. "Yes Shinji, it is. We will be outfitting one of your EVAs with F Type equipment in order to allow it to survive the heat and pressure."

"I want to go." Asuka said, instantly.

"That's good." Misato commented, "Because only Units 00 and 02 can use this equipment, and 02 is the one it's made for."

"Right. Let's get you suited up." Ritsuko said, leading Asuka away from the group.

"All right. Shinji, you will take Unit 01 and help Asuka." Misato said.

"Why me?" Shinji protested, looking over at Ranma who was perfectly fine.

"Because, even if you haven't actually been out in combat together, you and Asuka have gone through synchronization training." Misato said, looking at Shinji. "If you don't want to pilot the EVA, we can get Ranma to do it for you."

"No… It's all right." Shinji said, walking out of the room and towards his entry plug.

"So why are you really sending him to help her?" Ranma asked, looking curiously at Misato.

Misato just grinned slyly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Ranma sighed and thanked the Kami that the older woman was distracted away from her and Rei for the time being.

HR.

Gendo Ikari stood in the darkened room, so similar to the holo-conference room where the members of SEELE communicated with him that it gave him chills. Fortunately, there was only one member of SEELE in the room at the moment. Tightening his grip on the black case in his hand, Gendo approached Keel.

"Ikari. You have brought it?" Keel asked.

"Yes." Gendo said, holding the small black case forward quickly. He was reluctant to allow the old men to get a hold of what essentially was the key to third impact, but his attempts to get its delivery date changed to avoid interaction with the third child had been shot down.

"So eager to part with this, Gendo?" Keel asked, slightly amused, before stretching out one hand and waving it through the box. Gendo's eyes widened a tiny fraction. This room looked so much like the Holo-conference room, because it was one.

"What is the meaning of this?" The commander snapped, irritated.

"Gendo, you unbalanced the plan by bringing the angel into the equation, and you will bring it back into balance." Keel said, simply.

"But if this, the third child and Lilith ever come into close proximity..." Gendo said, trailing off.

"I am quite aware of that." Keel said, before walking away.

Gendo held back an incredibly irritated growl, lowering the hand that held Adam, in its block of clear plastic, to his side and slowly leaving the room.

HR.

Asuka stood in the Pilots' changing room, looking herself over. "This plug suit doesn't look any different from the normal one." She said, tugging at the material.

"Push the button on your right wrist." Ritsuko instructed, trying to hold back a laugh.

Asuka did so, and the plug suit suddenly swelled up and made her look like she weighed a few hundred pounds. "What the?" She asked, looking down at herself.

"That's part of the equipment." Ritsuko said, "Now let's get you out to your EVA."

Asuka reluctantly followed her, walking out into the EVA cage area. The second Ranma caught sight of her, she keeled over laughing.

"Yeah, laugh it up, Engel." Asuka growled, before catching sight of her EVA. "What have you done to my beautiful Unit 02?" She shreaked, running over to it.

"That's the F type equipment. Radiation proof, pressure and heat resistant." Ritsuko said, proudly.

"I can't go out in an EVA battle looking like that!" Asuka complained. "Why don't you let the Engel or backup do it."

Suddenly, a male voice came from a catwalk above the cage. "Oh. That's too bad. I was looking forward to seeing you in action."

"Kaji-kun?" Asuka squeaked, attempting to inch her bulky form behind the others.

"I will pilot Unit 02 if you would like, Asuka-san." Rei said, from her position behind the now recovering Ranma.

"No one touches my Unit 02!" Asuka said, turning back to glare at Rei. "I'll do it!"

"That's good. Now get in there, we have to get going." Misato said, as she walked into the room.

Asuka nodded and then walked over to the entry plug to be loaded into her EVA.

"Rei, You will stay here on standby in case another angel attacks Tokyo 3 while we're gone. Ranma, you will act as her backup." Misato ordered, as Shinji climbed into Unit 01 and the three adults walked out of a far door towards NERV's airfield.

As unit 01 powered up, Ranma began to feel a strange buzzing in the back of her head. Dismissing it, she stood next to Rei and watched as the two EVAs were loaded onto transports and taken away.

"Are you concerned about Asuka san?" Rei asked, looking questioningly at Ranma.

"She'll be fine." Ranma responded, "She's got that real thick armor to protect her. Let's go and bug Daisuke for a while. I heard he works around here."

"Would it be possible for us to return to the pool instead?" Rei asked. "It was quite... relaxing."

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, sure, I guess." He responded, and the two walked off.

HR.

Half an hour later, Asuka stared down at the Lava at the top of the Volcano nervously. Of course, she wouldn't actually admit that she was nervous but she was about to jump into a really large pit full of lava.

"Are you ready to begin the mission, Asuka?" Misato asked, from her position at the Mount Asama research station.

"Ready to go." The Second Child said, looking over to see Shinji standing with Unit 01 a few hundred meters away. "Here I go. Giant stroke entry!" Saying this didn't help her nervousness any as she could almost feel the molten rock close around her feet.

HR.

"Man it's hot in here." Asuka said several minutes later, as her EVA sank through the magma. "My visibility's almost zero."

"That's all right. You should be able to see the angel when it comes up." Misato said, sounding cool and commanding. "All you have to do is capture it in the magnetic cage."

"Right." Asuka said, as her EVA continued to sink.

A few minutes later, Unit 02's pilot grunted as one of the plates of extra armor on her EVA flaked off, and she began to feel a small amount of pain in her left leg.

"Are you all right, Asuka?" Shinji asked, concerned.

"I'm fine Backup." Asuka muttered, ignoring the pain. Unfortunately, the sharp flinch that had occurred when the armor had first flaked off had caused her progressive knife to come loose from the ad hock construct that had attached it to the new armor. "Damn, I just lost the prog knife."

"Don't worry about that right now, Asuka. It's just a little farther until you get to the projected position of the angel." Misato's voice came, reassuring Asuka.

Right after Misato said this, a tone sounded in Asuka's ear to indicate that she had arrived at the correct location. Looking around, she didn't see the angel. "Um, Misato san? I don't see anything."

"Ritsuko just told me that the Magma is flowing faster than we expected. You'll have to go a bit deeper." Misato said, responding to Asuka's statement.

"All right…" Asuka said, dubiously.

HR.

Back at NERV HQ, Ranma stopped as he and Rei walked down a hall.

"What's wrong Ranma?" Rei asked, looking at him in concern.

"I… don't know." Ranma muttered, rubbing his forehead. That buzzing noise had gotten worse, and he was beginning to feel worried about Asuka for no apparent reason. "She's fine…" He muttered, shaking his head violently.

"Who's fine?" Rei asked, curiously.

"No one." Ranma responded, "Let's go down to the gym and spar."

Rei nodded in agreement and the two headed off.

HR.

Back at Mount Asama, Asuka had finally caught sight of the angel. As her EVA approached it, she held out the magnetic cage. "I've got it. Angel captured!" She said, happily as the Angel fit nicely into the containment cage.

"Good work, we're bringing you back up." Misato said, and Asuka's EVA began to head for the surface. As it rose, the contents of its containment cage began to move. "What the?" Asuka wondered, looking down at the angel, as it flailed around desperately, trying to get free.

HR.

At the Mount Asama research base, Aoba looked up from a console he was studying. "The angel is going to breach the cage!"

"Asuka, jettison the containment cage, primary mission failed. New objective, destroy that angel!" Misato ordered.

HR.

"Right." Asuka said, releasing the handles that connected her EVA to the cage and watching it float away.

Immediately after that, she reached for her EVA's leg where its progressive knife was kept. As her hand came in contact with the empty spot where the knife's sheath was supposed to be, she cursed her own stupidity in forgetting that she'd lost it on the way down. "Backup, I need your prog knife!" She yelled, hoping that Shinji understood.

"Right." Shinji responded. "My knife's on its way down to you."

"Thanks." Asuka said, trying to dodge the angel for long enough for Shinji's knife to get to her.

HR.

Back at NERV, Ranma stopped in the middle of a sparring session, causing Rei to smash him in the stomach with her fist.

"Ranma? Are you all right?" Rei asked, running over to help him up.

"I'm fine." Ranma muttered, as that small feeling of worry for Asuka in the back of his mind strengthened. "Let's keep going."

HR.

Asuka was getting seriously worried now. She had received Shinji's prog knife a few seconds ago, and it appeared to be having no effect on the angel.

"The angel is resistant to high temperatures and extreme pressure. The prog knife won't hurt it!" Came Ritsuko's voice over the comm.

'Wait a second. High temperature… thermal expansion!" Asuka thought, as she tried one last gambit in order to destroy the angel. As she released Unit 02's coolant into the angel's face, it contracted, cracked and then disintegrated.

"Yeah! I got it!" Asuka said, pumping her EVA's arm into the air.

"Angel destroyed." Misato responded, relieved. "Bring up Unit 02."

"Right. Retracting the cables." Came Ritsuko's voice, as Asuka felt her EVA begin to rise from its current position.

HR.

As Unit 02 was rising out of the volcano, the cables that were supplying it with coolant, as well as hauling it up began to strain. The angel had done severe damage to several of them, and Asuka herself had cut another, so it was only natural that they had weakened. No one really noticed this until a loud snapping sound reverberated around the volcano's crater and the lines began to unravel into the lava.

"Asuka!" Shinji yelled, Unit 01 diving forward to grab the end of a snapped cable just as it entered the Lava. Since Shinji's EVA didn't have the protective armor, its hand began to melt under the extreme heat. Letting out a pained cry, Shinji hauled back on the cable, dragging it back onto land so that it could be re-hooked to its winch.

HR.

As Ranma and Rei walked out of the Gym at NERV HQ, Ranma nursing a large bruise on his stomach where Rei had hit him, the pigtailed pilot suddenly jerked to a stop.

"Ranma? Are you all right?" Rei asked, waiving a hand in front of his face.

In response, Ranma lifted up his right hand and studied it. Looking curious, Rei also studied Ranma's hand. Before their eyes, it began to blister, almost looking like it was severely burnt.

Ranma winced, clutching his hand with the one that was still healthy. "I think I'd better get down to the medical wing." He muttered, trying to conceal his pain.

Rei nodded and the two quickly hurried to that part of the base.

HR.

As Shinji and Asuka walked towards a promised visit to a hot spring, Asuka put her hand on Shinji's shoulder. "Hey, backup."

"Uh?" Shinji asked, looking curiously at the girl.

"Thanks for helping me out there… even if I didn't really need it."

Shinji smiled slightly. "It was no problem." Just after this exchange, a man wearing what looked like a delivery company uniform walked up to the two.

"I've got a delivery for Shinji Ikari of NERV?"

Shinji blinked in surprise. "That's me." He said, signing the man's clip board and receiving the small brown package. Shaking it, he wondered what was inside before a loud "Wark!" greeted him.

"Pen-Pen?" The brown haired boy asked, as the black and white bird tore its way free of the package. "I guess you wanted to come to the hot spring, eh?"

"Well he's going in with you, not me." Asuka said, walking into the building ahead of Shinji. Shinji just sighed and looked down at the penguin, then walked into the hot spring bath.

HR.

Later that day, Ritsuko was looking over Ranma and shaking her head. "And how do you manage to do these things?" She wondered, studying his hand.

"I don't know." Ranma said, wincing as the doctor pressed slightly too hard on a particularly sensitive spot. "It just happened as me 'n Rei were leavin the gym."

"I see." Ritsuko muttered, carefully applying antiseptic and a bunch of bandages to the hand. "Well, while you're here as my prisoner I've got some time to tell you some things."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking at Ritsuko in confusion.

"Well, I was going to wait for your next major Synchronization test to tell you this, but I've figured out why your girl side's eyes turned brown."

"Really?" Ranma asked, interested. "Why?"

"You're absorbing someone else's genetic material. It only seems to happen when you're in the EVA, but it's happening rather quickly."

Ranma blinked, looking at Ritsuko uncomprehendingly.

"There was a person who tried to Sync with EVA 01 before you. Her name was Yui Ikari, Commander Ikari's wife. There was an accident and she ended up being absorbed by the EVA unit. I think that the part of her that's in the EVA is trying to get out through you." Ritsuko noticed that Ranma seemed to give a start of recognition when she mentioned Yui's name.

"So… what's this mean for me?" The pigtailed boy asked.

"I asked Gendo to pull you off of Unit 01, but he just told me to tell you about the problem and let you decide. I think you should stop piloting Unit 01 and let Shinji do it." Ritsuko said, matter of factly.

"No." Ranma said, flatly as he tightened his undamaged hand into a fist. "Shinji ain't gunna have to pilot an EVA in a dangerous battle if I can do anything about it. I don't care what Unit 01's doing to me. Besides, fighting is my life."

Ritsuko blinked, not expecting the conviction that had been in Ranma's voice when he mentioned protecting the other boy. As Ranma walked out of the room, she looked after him worriedly. 'Has it already started?' She wondered, before turning around in her chair and returning to her computer.

HR.

That night, Ranma lay in his bed, unable to sleep. Thoughts of what Ritsuko had said the day before ran through his head. '…you should stop Piloting.' 'Let Shinji do it.' Shaking his head rapidly, Ranma rolled over on his side.

"What the hell are you doing to me, Unit 01?" He wondered, in a soft voice. Then, a picture of Shinji, his face white in fear and clutching a left arm that he thought was broken flashed into Ranma's mind. "I've got to keep piloting." Then another picture, this one of Rei lying severely injured in a hospital bed. "I just wish I was the only one who had to." His mind still troubled, Ranma rolled over again and finally got to sleep.

END.

Note: Shinji's rescue of Asuka went a little differently here than in canon. I did this for several reasons, one of which being that I didn't want my main character par boiled... again. The other one was that the scene as shown in the Anime really didn't seem to work for me, since it broke a lot of rules established earlier in the episode.

EVAs needing F type equipment for the volcano, needing ballast in order to drop rather than float, etc, etc.

Anyhow, hope you don't mind, and please tell me what you think.

The day Tokyo 3 stood still

Chapter 15. Klaatu Barada Nikto! (The day Tokyo 3 stood still)

Shinji Ikari stood at a pay phone, talking to a man on the other end. : And the school says that we need our parents to come in so…" He said, uncertainly.

The man on the other end, who sounded suspiciously like Gendo Ikari, sighed. "I am rather busy… but I'll try to be there as soon as…" As he talked, the phone line cut out.

"What the?" Shinji wondered, looking at the phone.

"So Backup, what did your father say?" Asuka asked, from her position behind Shinji.

"He said he'd try. The strange thing is that he suddenly cut off half way through his sentence."

"He hung up on you?" Asuka asked, surprised.

"I don't think so." Shinji said, looking thoughtful. "It was more like there was a communications failure or something. I guess we should go to NERV and check it out."

"Right." Asuka said, attempting to lead Shinji to NERV HQ.

HR.

At NERV HQ, in a darkened elevator, Misato Katsuragi sat looking up at the ceiling while Kaji Ryouji stood next to her. "Auxiliary power should be cutting on any minute." She said, hopefully.

"Really? How's the power system laid out around here anyways?" Kaji asked, looking at Misato curiously.

"We've got the main line, our emergency line and the backup batteries. There's no way they all could go out." Misato said, as the lights in the elevator refused to come on.

"I guess Dr. Akagi screwed up an experiment or something." Kaji said, shrugging.

HR.

Meanwhile, in a test lab, Ritsuko turned away from the darkened viewing window to look back at her staff. "We didn't do this, right?" She asked, hopefully.

Seeing that no one else that she could see in the darkened room was willing to answer her, she sighed. "All right, let's get the backup circuits online!"

"I… I can't." One of the technicians stammered, typing furiously. "Main power sources are offline as well as those to most of the backup circuits. We've barely got enough power for life support."

"Damn." Ritsuko cursed, pounding her fist down on the top of a nearby console. "Well, let's get out of here and up to the main control room."

HR.

Ranma Saotome sat on the couch, moodily rewrapping his burnt hand. It had been a few days since he had gotten the burns, however they hadn't gone away as such injuries normally did.

Sitting down next to him, Rei looked over his rather quick and sloppy attempt at a proper bandage. "Allow me to help you." She said, grabbing the hand away from its owner. Carefully and delicately, she began unwrapping the bandages and rewrapping them. "There. Done."

"Thanks a lot." Ranma said, smiling gratefully at the girl.

"It was not a problem." Rei said, blushing. Their eyes met for a moment, but they both looked away in embarrassment.

"Thanks." Ranma said again, before quickly changing the subject. ""Hey Rei. Let's go take a walk. You know, for exercise." He offered, trying to assuage a jumpy, nervous feeling that he'd had for the last hour or so.

Rei nodded and the two got up off of the couch, leaving the apartment.

HR.

Back in the elevator, Misato felt like she was going to go insane. If Kaji made one more incredibly obvious pass at her she would break his arm. True, she had harbored affection for the man when she was in college but that was a long time ago and he didn't really get that it was over.

"You know, it's getting kind of hot in here." Kaji said, as he took off his NERV Jacket.

Misato groaned at such an obvious line. The life support system was still on, and the base was at a slightly chilly 15 degrees C.

"You know, if it's getting too hot for you, you can take off your jacket. There's no shame between us." Kaji said with an expression that, if she had met him, Misato would instantly compare to Master Happosai. As he said this, Kaji reached over and touched Misato on the arm.

That's when she lost it. "Kaji No Hentai!" Misato yelled, doing something that she hadn't done since her college days and pulling a mallet out of nowhere, slamming Kaji into the elevator doors. With a groan, both Kaji and the doors fell to the ground, revealing a corridor that was relatively close to the control centre. Smiling at her luck, Misato walked over Kaji's twitching body and towards the control centre.

After she was some distance away, the prone man chuckled. "Guess someone forgot she was just as much of a pervert back then." He grinned, before passing out.

HR.

"That's strange, my card won't work." Shinji muttered, slipping his card through the reader at the front entrance of NERV HQ for the third time.

"Let me try it, backup." Asuka ordered, pushing Shinji out of the way. She growled in exasperation as she had just as much luck with the door as Shinji.

"Hey. What's goin on here?" Came Ranma's voice as he and Rei walked up behind the other two pilots.

"We're not really sure." Shinji said, looking confused. "It's like NERV's under a power blackout or something."

"Weird." Ranma said, looking at the gate. "I could bust that open but it'd probably be a bad idea."

The other three nodded in agreement before Rei reached into her pocket, extracting a small plastic covered card.

Trying to disguise the look of realization on her face, Asuka quickly pulled out her own card, and the two girls both bent them along a crease molded into the plastic, causing a cracking noise, at the same time.

"What's that?" Ranma and Shinji both asked, looking at the paper.

"It's our emergency orders." Rei said, reading it over. "In the event of a power blackout or loss of communication, all EVA pilots are to use alternate entrances to proceed to NERV Headquarters." She read, tucking the paper back into her dress pocket.

"Well then, I guess we head out." Asuka said, leading the way.

"Um…Asuka san?" Rei said, tentatively.

"What is it, Rei?" Asuka responded, slightly annoyed.

"You're going the wrong way." Rei responded, pointing off in the opposite direction to the one in which Asuka was heading. "The nearest secondary entrance is this way."

"I knew that." Asuka said, stomping off in that direction.

HR.

A few hundred miles away, the personnel of a JSSDF military base got the distinct impression that SOMETHING was supposed to happen… but couldn't think for the life of them what it was.

HR.

After the four EVA pilots had managed to find a side entrance to the Geofront, a presence finally fully awoke. It had been planning this for over a year, now, and the perfect vulnerability had presented itself.

Without anyone noticing, Ranma Saotome's eyes briefly flashed a pale orange color as he walked down a darkened corridor.

HR.

In the NERV main control room at central dogma, Gendo Ikari stood looking at the dead terminals around him. As he contemplated them, he worried. With the main power off, the Electromagnetic scattering rig around the chamber in which NERV's most guarded possession was kept was down, and with it that way, any attacking angel would be able to sense exactly where the second angel, Lilith, was stored. By extension, that meant that they would also know where Adam was.

Hoping that no angels would attack, Gendo asked for a status report. "How much power do we have left?"

Ritsuko, who had arrived a few minutes ago with most of the test staff, spoke up. "We've got four out of some 300 auxiliary power sources and reserve batteries to draw off of. All of the others are unavailable."

"Is that enough power to run the Magi system?" Gendo asked, concerned.

"For a few hours, yes, but we'd have to cut off life support and even the magnetic door locks. After that, we will start losing sections of the MAGI network." Ritsuko reported, looking over power curve graphs.

"All right. Keep them online with the power we've got for as long as you can. Assign available work crews to restoring power from any available sources." Gendo ordered, looking worriedly at the computer screens around him again.

"Its gunna get pretty hot in here." Aoba observed, after overhearing the order.

Gendo leveled a glare at the back of his head, but the technician didn't turn around.

HR.

Wandering through the hallways of NERV, the four children were getting lost. "Are you sure you know where you're going, Asuka?" Shinji asked, suspiciously.

"Of course I do." Asuka said confidently.

Behind the arguing pair, Ranma and Rei walked, Ranma seeming to be in a daze.

"Ranma, are you all right?" The pale girl asked, reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder.

"Huh?" The pigtailed boy asked, confused.

"I asked if you were all right." Rei said, getting more concerned.

"Oh. I'm fine." He muttered, staring straight ahead and walking in a slow, even rhythm.

Rei frowned after him, not believing this for some reason.

HR.

A few minutes later, the group came to a fork in the passage. "I say we go this way." Asuka said, pointing to a passage that would eventually lead up to the surface.

"No… this way." Ranma said, beginning to walk down the other hallway.

"Hey, Engel! Come back here!" Asuka yelled, running after the boy. Shinji and Rei quickly followed.

"Would you at least wait for us?" Asuka yelled angrily as she caught up to the steadily advancing third child, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" Ranma yelled, shrugging his shoulder hard and knocking Asuka's hand off of it.

"E…Engel?" The german asked, her eyes wide. Ranma turned towards her for a moment, his own eyes seeming to glow dimly with a pale orange light.

Asuka staggered back, looking frightened.

"What's wrong, Asuka san?" Rei asked, walking up next to her.

"The Engel… His eyes…" Asuka stammered.

Becoming curious, Rei walked in front of Ranma, looking him in the face. Sure enough, Ranma's normally blue eyes seemed to emit a very slight orange glow. Just as she was going to comment on this, the other pilot brushed by her, shoving her out of the way. "Ranma-kun?" She wondered, looking strangely after the boy.

After a few more minutes of silent walking, the group came to another fork. There was a sign pointing to the right that said "Central Dogma," However Ranma turned down the left passage.

"Hey Engel. Where're you going?" Asuka asked, running up to Ranma and grabbing his arm, having managed to convince herself that the glow she'd seen in his eyes before was just her imagination.

"Get off of me." Ranma muttered, knocking her hand off.

"Ranma. What's wrong?" Shinji asked, grabbing Ranma's shoulder in an attempt to stop him.

"Let me GO!" Ranma yelled, lashing out and slamming Shinji in the chest with his arm.

Shinji let out a short gasp of pain, falling to the ground and clutching at his chest. His eyes were wide in surprise.

"Hey Engel! Why'd you do that to backup?" Asuka yelled, getting in Ranma's path. This time, the pigtailed martial artist didn't speak as his hand lashed out, knocking Asuka to the floor a few feet away from Shinji.

Rei looked at Ranma with slight apprehension as she helped the other two to their feet. "Go and get help. I will try to reason with him." She said.

Asuka wanted to protest, but a steady look from Rei's disconcerting red eyes, along with the throbbing in her chest from where Ranma's fist had slammed into it, dissuaded her. Reluctantly, she turned away and helped Shinji limp down the hall towards Central Dogma.

As the two walked away from Ranma and Rei, they heard Rei start talking.

"Ranma. What are you doing?" Rei asked, concern clear in her voice.

"I… must get to him." Ranma muttered, his face never turning as he continued walking.

"Why?" Rei asked, debating with herself weather it would be a good idea to try and stop the martial artist.

"I do not know." Ranma said, in a monotone. What really scared Rei was that he said it without using his usual contractions or poorly worded Japanese.

HR.

It was dark. That was all Ranma could tell. The last thing he could remember, he was walking through the entrance to NERV HQ with the other three children, and then he was here. Looking around, he couldn't see anything until a light suddenly exploded out of the darkness to reveal… himself. Although this version of Ranma was older, stronger and standing with an unemotional look on his face.

"Hey, you. What're ya doin here?" Ranma asked, walking up to the other figure.

"I am here because I am awake." The other man said, still wearing his emotionless expression.

Blinking in confusion from this nonsensical answer, Ranma tried again. "Well then who are you?"

"I am you." The other man responded, flatly. "More precisely, I am the better part of you. The part that has been asleep for the twenty four years of our existence."

Ranma blinked. There was something wrong with what the other him had said. He'd been born in 1982, and he was now approximately 34, so what did the other mean by 'the twenty four years of our existence?' Dismissing this thought, he clicked on the other part of what the man had said. "Wadda ya mean you're better than me?"

"I am the part of you that knows its power. I am the Angel of Terror." The other Ranma said, a small variation on Ranma's own cocky smirk suddenly appearing on his face. "And now, I will prove it!" With this last cry, the older man attacked.

HR.

"What do you thinks' wrong with the Engel?" Asuka asked, as she and Shinji walked down the hall towards Central Dogma.

"I don't know." Shinji replied, looking nervously back to where they had left Rei and nursing the injury Ranma had given him. "I just hope he doesn't attack Rei like that."

"There's the control room." Asuka said, still slightly too winded to yell, pointing ahead to a half opened security door. Running towards it, she dragged Shinji behind her.

HR.

Back in the other hallway, Rei was getting frustrated. "Ranma. Please talk to me."

"There is nothing to talk about. I must find him." Ranma responded, continuing to walk forward.

"Please stop!" Rei yelled, grabbing Ranma by the upper arms, in order to try and halt his forward movement. His leg moved out to kick her away, but she quickly countered with her own. Ranma quickly shoved his arms outward, knocking Rei's grip loose and throwing his right hand in for a swift punch to Rei's abdomen. Fortunately for Rei, he seemed to forget that that was his wounded hand, screaming in pain as the partially healed blisters popped as it collided with her body.

As Ranma staggered back, holding his wounded hand, Rei slipped into a defensive position. "Ranma…. please don't make me do this." She said, fear and uncertainty clearly visible in her eyes for the first time in her life.

The boy just charged forward, seeming to forget almost all of his martial arts in a blind rage.

HR.

Meanwhile, back in the black plain, Ranma was being pressed hard. This man seemed to know as many martial arts tricks as he did, and he had greater strength and reach. Barely dodging one of the older man's punches, Ranma came in under his arm and gave a few jackhammer blows to his stomach, only to have a kick to his own stomach pick him up and throw him several feet away.

Gasping, Ranma picked himself up off of the floor and re-evaluated his opponent. He was good. He knew everything Ranma did and he was about twice as strong. "All right. Time to take off the kid gloves." Ranma said, as his body began to glow a pale blue, his pain fading away and muscles seeming to hum with Chi enhancement.

The man also let off a battle aura, this one colored a pale orange to match his glowing eyes, and much larger, seemingly uncontrolled. The two met in the middle of the void, trading blows.

HR.

Rei was very surprised. Ranma was being beaten. Not only that, but she was doing it easily. He seemed to forget most of his technique and charge in recklessly, making it child's play for her to redirect his force in order to hurt himself, a principle of Tai Chi which was one of the first things that Ranma had taught the relatively weak Rei.

Redirecting one of his punches so that it would pass harmlessly past her head, Rei swung a hay maker of her own into his chin, sending him reeling back. A few seconds later, Ranma narrowed his eyes, a blinding orange light emitting from his body. After she felt a huge concussion wave, Rei's vision went black.

HR.

Shinji and Asuka ran into central dogma, panting. "Misato. Ritsuko san. Come quick." Shinji wheezed, noticing the two women standing at one of the consoles.

"What's going on?" His father's voice rang out, coming from the space behind him.

Shinji jumped and then faced the older man. "F… father." He breathed, before remembering the seriousness of the situation. "Ranma's acting really weird. He hurt me and Asuka. Rei's with him, but I think she might be in trouble."

"What?" Misato asked, coming over from the station she was at. "Where are they?"

"I'll show you." Asuka said. "Backup's pretty badly banged up."

"Right." Misato said, following the young redhead out of Central dogma as Ritsuko looked over Shinji, Gendo trying to conceal his worry from a position behind the two.

He had kept Saotome around, assuming that he was reasonably harmless. In spite of his relatively infrequent bouts of temper, he was a level headed, if occasionally slow EVA pilot, and Gendo needed all of those that he could get at the moment. He frowned. Perhaps the boy's more angelic traits had only been dormant, and were manifesting now that the Geofront was vulnerable?

HR.

Misato and Asuka found Rei sprawled out on the floor, her right arm stretched down the hall and her left twisted at an odd angle.

"Rei!" Misato gasped, running up to the girl and picking her up.

"R…Ranma-kun…" Rei said, tears in her eyes.

"Let's get her out of here and get some medical attention for her." Misato said, picking the girl up and lifting her into her arms.

Asuka nodded in agreement and the two headed back towards the control centre.

HR.

Ranma gasped as his older duplicate landed a blow to his ribs, causing one of them to snap. As he fell back, he coughed and a small stream of blood came from between his lips.

"Why're you doin this?" Ranma gasped, cradling his injured side.

The man laughed. "I'm doing this because I have to. In order to take complete control I have to destroy you, and so long as I keep you occupied here I can get at least partial control of our external form. Just enough to get to him."

"Huh? Ya mean that thing in Terminal Dogma?" Ranma asked, his eyes wide. But if I touch that…" He trailed off as he dodged a punch from the other man.

"You cause the end of everything." He said, recovering from his missed punch in time to get hammered in the chest by Ranma's smaller fist.

HR.

Back at the Central control room, Misato Katsuragi watched over a pale blue haired girl who was lying on a makeshift bed, constructed out of a few chairs. Ritsuko Akagi, Gendo Ikari and the two still conscious children were looking at a map of NERV that was displayed on one of the few still lit computer screens, trying to figure out where Ranma was going.

"Damn." Ritsuko cursed, looking over the rout that they had finally extrapolated for the rogue EVA pilot. "Ranma's headed straight for the manual access ladder to Terminal Dogma."

"What?" Gendo asked, his eyes widening slightly. Then, looking grim, he spoke again. "Designate Pilot Saotome as the ninth angel… and find some way of destroying him."

"What?" Asuka said, indignantly. "I don't really like the Engel but killing him?"

"It's the only way." Gendo muttered, straightening his glasses. "If we don't stop it, we'll all be killed."

"No…" came a voice, whispered from Misato's position. Surprised, the four deliberating people saw Rei struggling up to a sitting position, Misato helping her. "Please don't kill Ranma-kun." She begged, her eyes filling with tears. "There has to be some other way…"

"Yeah. She's right!" Asuka chimed in.

"Father… they're right." Shinji said, quietly.

Gendo looked between the children. If they hadn't been standing in front of him, he would have been able to just plow ahead with the orders, however seeing his son looking directly, and defiantly, into his eyes, he sighed. "Capture or incapacitate the threat if possible."

The children, as well as Misato and Ritsuko, sighed in relief.

HR.

Fifteen minutes later, a security team was crouching in a hallway, waiting for their target to approach.

"Now remember." The leader said, fingering a side arm. "Hand to hand first, guns later."

"Right." His men said, fanning out. As they waited, they began to hear a tapping noise, as if someone was walking slowly down the hall. As the young boy walked into the light, one man snorted. "We're supposed to beat up that kid?" He asked, disgustedly.

"Have you ever seen that kid fight? Now shut up and get him!" The commander of the team barked, causing the entire group to jump towards the boy. As they came close, an orange barrier flickered into existence, knocking them back. "What the heck is that?" The commander breathed, looking stunned.

"It… it's an AT field!" One of his subordinates said, having seen them when he was posted to one of the city's defense stations. "We can't get through that!"

"We have to try." The commander said, pulling a gun. Aiming, he shot at the boy, the orange field rippling and the bullet dropping to the ground.

"What the?" The commander muttered, as the boy's eyes began to glow brighter and he raised a hand, causing a wave of orange energy to explode out from his body and slam the security team against the walls.

"This is team Beta. The target has neutralized us." One man said into a portable radio, before falling over, unconscious.

HR.

Ten minutes, and two more security teams, later, Ritsuko cursed, entering more information into the blueprint of NERV to show where Ranma now was. "The way he's moving now, He'll reach the emergency ladder in less than twenty minutes."

A short distance away, everyone else was sitting around a table, trying to think of a way to stop Ranma.

"Hey… wait a minute." Misato said, remembering something that had been reported by one of the security teams before they had been knocked unconscious. "If Ranma's got an AT field, how did Rei manage to fight him?"

"I'm unsure." Rei said, trying to remember the details of the fight before Ranma had knocked her out. "Perhaps I neutralized it like we do in the EVAs."

"But isn't that impossible without an EVA unit?" Shinji asked, blinking.

"It's supposed to be." Ritsuko said, coming over to the group. "Then again, you children seem to be bent on blowing all of our theories and predictions out of the water, especially Ranma. It may be that the only people who can stop him are you EVA Pilots." The lie she'd just told was rather obvious to her, as she knew full well how Rei had produced an AT field, but the pilots seemed to accept it.

"You mean we've got to fight the Engel in hand to hand combat? We'll be taken apart!" Asuka said, although it was hard to admit that Ranma would beat her so quickly in a fight.

"Well, he doesn't seem to be using his full ability." Rei contributed, causing everyone to look at her. "He is fighting like a very powerful brawler. No technique at all. As long as we manage to dodge him, we may be able to beat him."

"I see." Misato said, sounding doubtful. She had seen Ranma fight, and he was almost super human.

"Well, what other hope do we have?" Shinji asked, throwing up his hands exasperatedly. "If he's got an AT field then we can't use any conventional weapons against him anyways."

Gendo frowned darkly from several feet away from the table, and spoke. "Your plan is approved, but not at the cost of pilots' lives. if that is impossible, destroy the angel."

With that pronouncement, the group went to work on choosing a good place to intercept Ranma, not noticing that Gendo had moved over to Fuyutsuki and was whispering something into his ear. The older man nodded, before departing from the room.

HR

On the black plain, Ranma was getting frustrated. He had found one weakness of his older duplicate, the problem was that it wasn't much of one and his strengths balanced it out. The older man didn't seem to know how to focus Chi correctly. All he could produce was this pale orange stuff that seemed to hurt a lot less than a standard Chi attack. Very thankful for his single blessing, Ranma tried to stay at Range and throw his own Chi projectiles. While doing this, he tried to distract his opponent with taunts and talking.

"So, why the heck do ya wanna cause third impact, anyways?" He asked, throwing a large blue Moko Takabisha at his opponent.

"It's my function." The older man said, charging towards the younger, and casually dodging the energy attack. "I'm here to remedy the mistake that is humanity."

"What the hell does THAT mean?" Ranma asked, desperately avoiding a flurry of punches from his opponent.

"Do you not realize? Humanity is just here to hurt itself. You just keep causing each other pain. Surely you know this most of all." He smirked cruelly. "After all, you were quite adept at causing other humans pain in your time. I'm going to stop it, as I was created to do."

Ranma flinched slightly, before regaining his composure. "I can't believe that all I'm here for is to blow everyone up!" He said, quickly punching the older man in the face and sending him backwards, clutching his nose.

"I am beginning to become annoyed!" The man said, constructing what looked like an AT field out of orange energy and charging Ranma with it, slamming him in the chest.

"Ghh…" Ranma grunted, finding out that the man's weaker energy became a whole lot stronger when turned into a shield. Trying to produce his own barrier, Nothing happened. "Wh… what's wrong. Why can't I put up an AT field?"

Ranma's opponent laughed. "Because that ability is one of those granted by the part of you that is an angel. In this place, where we are separate beings, I command all of those."

Gritting his teeth, Ranma felt the shield slam into him again, propelling him back and through the darkness.

"Face it Ranma. You lose." The older man said, sneering cruelly at his downed opponent. "I have been manipulating you for over a year, and you never understood or questioned it."

"What..." Ranma gasped, as he struggled to his feet. "What do you mean by that?"

"You never once questioned why one of those 'mushrooms of ageing' was present in your back pack thirteen years after you'd last seen them. You never questioned how you, alone, could pilot an Evangelion unit when only children born after the second impact should be able to." The angel gathered another AT shield, throwing it at Ranma again and sending him back to the ground. "You are a fool."

"Y'know..." Ranma growled, hauling himself back to his feet. "You talk too much."

"Damn. You're far too persistent." The older man cursed, before the battle was joined again.

HR.

Shinji and Asuka stood in a hallway, looking nervously down it. They had agreed to this idea hoping that they could save their friend, however they had seen Ranma fight and they knew what they were getting into. Rei had also seen the boy fight, but she seemed somehow less worried about that. She was still troubled, however.

Rei stood next to the other two EVA pilots in the hallway, tense. Hundreds of thoughts ran through her mind, as well as many memories of Ranma. "Don't worry. I'll protect you." On the escalator, at her third synchronization attempt. "I'd rather be called Ranma, please." On their first day of school. "Hey, are you all right?" During that disastrous second test.

"Hey Rei! Are you all right?" For a second, Rei thought that that was another memory; however she quickly realized that the voice that had said it was wrong. Turning, she saw Asuka looking at her strangely.

"I… I'm fine." Rei stammered, looking straight ahead at the darkened hall. As she looked, Rei saw the glowing orange eyes of Ranma. "He's coming." She said, taking an offensive stance. Shinji and Asuka tried to copy her, however Shinji had never had any martial arts training and Asuka had only had a small amount.

As the Pigtailed EVA Pilot got close enough to see in the dim light, Rei walked out in front of the other two pilots, still in a cautious attack position. "Ranma. Please stop this."

The boy didn't respond, still advancing slowly.

"Ranma… please!" Rei said, in a trembling voice.

"He's not going to listen." Asuka said, putting her hand on Rei's shoulder.

The blue haired girl nodded, her eyes shining with tears as she said one word. "Attack."

After this word was spoken, the three EVA Pilots surged forward, converging on the one Rogue. Ranma got hit by all three first strikes, falling back to a wall. Picking himself up, he let off an orange blast of energy. Fortunately, Rei had experienced this attack once before and dodged out of its way. Shinji and Asuka just instinctively followed her lead. A small growl coming from his throat, Ranma ran forward, swinging a fist as if he were a drunken boxer and smashing Shinji across the shoulder.

Shinji hissed in pain, his naturally low, even when bolstered by his time in the EVA, tolerance for it playing against him as he couldn't bear to move that arm now. Coming back in, he was belted across the left side of his face and spun in place before falling to the floor, unconscious.

"Backup!" Asuka yelled, seeing red. Charging for Ranma, she engaged in a round of the same kind of fighting he was using. Unfortunately for her, Ranma could take the punishment. While she could as well, she couldn't keep it up for nearly as long. Gasping in severe pain, Asuka fell to the ground next to Shinji, unable to get back up.

'It's just Ranma and I.' Rei thought, squaring off against Ranma by herself.

HR.

Back in the black plane, Ranma's older reflection chuckled. "You know, your friends are quite determined."

"Wadda ya mean by that?" Ranma asked, angrily, worried about the other pilots.

"Take a look." The older man said, waving his hand. As he did this, a small portion of the blackness around them faded to a view of two children, crumpled on the ground.

"Asuka… Shinji…. You bastard!" Ranma yelled, charging at his opponent with new ferocity now.

"But they're not all." The man said, smiling cruelly as he dodged backwards. Just as he said this, the view on the strange screen tilted upwards, to reveal Rei standing there, in an Anything Goes beginner's stance, holding up her fists.

"You don't touch her!" Ranma yelled, his attacks coming faster and faster, his blue Chi flames flaring chaotically around him.

The older man was taken aback. He hadn't expected this result. He had expected his other side to back down once he realized that he had lost, but the boy was fighting with even more ferocity. It was really too bad that he hadn't been able to go through all of Ranma's memories, otherwise he would know that what he was about to do would seal his own fate.

"Don't you see Ranma? All humans do is hurt each other. Look what you did to your friends."

"That… that wasn't me! That was you!" Ranma yelled, his furious attacks slacking for a moment.

"But Ranma, I am you." The older man said, in a smooth and condescending voice. "Anything I do, you do. Wouldn't it just be better to let me end it all?"

"No way…" Ranma said, swaying on his feet from the exertion of his series of attacks.

"Well, maybe I have to do something else to convince you." The man said, becoming distant for a moment. Ranma was about to capitalize on his opponent's distraction, until he saw what was happening on the screen, and his eyes widened in horror.

HR.

Rei gasped as Ranma suddenly began to develop a bit of skill again. His movements became less erratic and he started using his martial arts. Looking into his eyes, she saw that their glow had gotten brighter. In this moment of inattention, Ranma's hand had lashed out, grabbing her arm. "Wha….AH!" She screamed, as Ranma twisted sharply and a loud crack was heard. While Rei was gasping in pain, Ranma's other hand closed around another part of her body, her throat.

"Ranma… please…" She said, just before the hand twisted sharply and her world turned black.

HR.

"I'M GUNNA KILL YOU!" Ranma roared, charging at his enemy with fires of hatred in his eyes.

"What?" The older man asked, surprised that his opponent wasn't lying on the ground and sniveling.

Somewhere deep in his mind, Ranma had to laugh at what came out of his mouth next. "For what you just did to Rei, prepare to die!" Saying this, he threw his hands forward and let off an immense blast of power which slammed into the older man. His pained scream was the last thing Ranma heard before his vision seemed to mesh with the image on the screen and he found himself standing over the body of Rei Ayanami.

"No..." Ranma said, sinking to his knees and reaching out for the girl. "Rei? Rei, wake up." He begged, his eyes filling with tears. "Please Rei. You ain't dead. You can't be dead." With a trembling hand, Ranma reached out and felt Rei's neck, feeling a snapped cervical vertebra. There was no pulse.

HR.

Five minutes later, Misato, Ritsuko and Gendo found Shinji and Asuka beaten unconscious and Ranma kneeling on the floor, holding something.

"Ranma?" Misato asked, slowly approaching the boy. "Are you all right?"

"What have I done?" Ranma said, turning to Misato and the others. That's when they saw what he was holding.

"Damn." Ritsuko said, running over and taking Rei from Ranma's arms, seeming not even to realize that he had been a large threat to NERV just a few minutes before. Quickly inspecting the albino girl, she frowned. "It looks like this will take some work."

Misato knelt next to Ranma, noticing the tears in his eyes. Offering him a hand up, she led him away from the scene.

END.

Note: In this chapter's initial posting, I asked a question: "What does the title mean, why does it have relevance to this episode of EVA, and where does it come from?" (Although I misspelled it the first time around...)

Originally, the correctly spelled words are from an old sci-fi movie "The day the earth stood still," in an alien language. They mean "Klaatu is dead," and were used to shut down an alien robot.

The relevance? The robot, besides causing wide spread destruction, also caused a blackout of all non-essential electrical power on the planet. Also, this episode, possibly in homage, is subtitled "The day Tokyo 3 stood still."

* * *

**Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Evangelion, Death and rebirth**

* * *

**Comes back from the dead** Ah! Now it's time to write!

Chapter 24. Evangelion, Death and rebirth.

Later that day, Shinji and Asuka were sitting in the infirmary having their injuries looked at. "All right. Shinji, you had a dislocated shoulder but it was knocked back into place on it's own. You'll just feel a bit of pain in it for a few days." Ritsuko said, as the aforementioned Shinji hopped off of a hospital bed. "Asuka, you have two bruised ribs. Just be careful and they should heal right up."

The two pilots thanked Ritsuko and walked out of the room, trying not to look at the third body that was laying on another bed. Although the head was bent on a slightly unnatural angle, the heart monitor showed a slow and steady beat. Shinji sighed in relief the first time he saw it.

After the two pilots left the room, Ritsuko walked over to the heart monitor connected to the body of Rei Ayanami and turned off the test signal. As the device began recording real data again, it let off a long beep before being shut off. Sighing, Ritsuko put a hand on Rei's cold, lifeless arm. Removing the useless IV drips, she carted the body through another door, deep into the bowels of NERV HQ and towards a place that the few people in the know called the Rei Aquarium.

Meanwhile, outside of the examination room, Shinji and Asuka were staring at a third person who sat in a chair, looking listlessly at a wall and not moving.

"Ranma?" Shinji asked, tentatively approaching the third pilot. "Are you all right?"

The other boy turned a set of haunted eyes towards Shinji, causing him to step back in surprise. As Shinji stepped back, Asuka walked forward. "Hey Engelkind. It's all right. We're all fine." She said, trying to reassure Ranma.

"Rei ain't fine." Ranma muttered, returning his gaze to the wall in front of him.

"Yeh, she is. I saw her in the examination room. She's gunna be fine, you'll see." Asuka said, putting a hand on Ranma's shoulder.

Ranma sighed. "I… hope you're right… but I doubt it."

"Aw, c'mon Engelkind. Don't be like that. Let's get you home, Okay?" Asuka said, pulling Ranma out of the chair by the arm. He just nodded numbly.

Later that night, Shinji, Asuka and Misato were sitting at Misato's kitchen table, eating supper.

"How are your injuries from today?" Misato asked, looking Shinji and Asuka over.

"I'm all right." Shinji said, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm fine. I don't think the Engelkind was really trying to hurt us." Asuka said, looking at a small bruise on her arm. "I'm just worried about him and Rei."

"Really?" Misato asked, sipping at her beer. "I didn't think you liked those two much."

Asuka shrugged. "Sure, I don't really like them but I don't wanna see them dead or anything. Besides. The Engelkind seemed… so depressed today and you saw Rei."

Misato nodded solemnly before continuing to eat her rice.

Meanwhile, in the next apartment over, Ranma sat at the kitchen table, eating a small cup of Ramen. It wasn't nearly enough to fill him up most of the time, but his appetite wasn't really very large at the moment. Every few seconds, an image of Rei, her face contorted into an expression of fear, kept entering his mind. Growling in frustration, Ranma brought his fist down on the table he was sitting at, causing a small crack to form in it. 'Damn it! Why can't I get that image out of my mind!' He thought, clutching his head. Wincing in pain, Ranma felt the bandage on his burnt hand press into the wound and he pulled that hand back. It was covered in blood, as the bandage hadn't been changed since that morning.

Tearing strips of the bandage off, Ranma walked into the bathroom and grabbed a new roll of gauze. Roughly rapping it around his burnt hand, he taped it up and left it as it was. As he did that, he remembered Rei's soft and gentle touch performing the same action that morning. Growling in frustration, Ranma walked into his bedroom, leaving the half full cup of Ramen on the kitchen table. Flopping down on his bed, Ranma looked up at the sealing, desperately trying to get to sleep.

At NERV HQ, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi sat in the middle of a large, dark room, typing at a computer. sitting next to her in a tube was the body of one Rei Ayanami, version II. After she had tapped a few buttons on her computer console, lights sprang up around the edges of the room to reveal glass panels, behind which floated dozens of fourteen year old girls, all with blue hair and red eyes. The lights in one area became brighter and one of the fourteen year olds began to twitch spasmodically.

The next day at school, Asuka Langley Soryuu and Shinji Ikari kept throwing worried glances at their fellow EVA pilot, As Ranma had come into school wearing the same clothes that he had been wearing the day before. His eyes were also blood shot and he walked with a staggering gate, as if he were very tired.

"Hey Shinji." Touji asked, looking at Ranma. "What's wrong with Saotome? He's a mess!"

Shinji shrugged. "I guess he didn't get much sleep last night. Can't really blame him."

"Why? What happened?" Touji questioned, looking eagerly at Shinji.

"I can't tell you." Shinji said, looking straight at his friend. "NERV secret."

Touji sighed frustratedly. "It's days like this when I believe some of Kensuke's conspiracy theories about NERV."

Shinji laughed. "Which one? The one where the EVA pilots are experimental bio weapons or the one where NERV is composed of aliens?"

"Oh right. Never mind." Touji said, blushing slightly. "I'll never believe any of those."

A few seconds later, after a short and uncomfortable silence, Shinji's phone, which he had started bringing recently, began to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket, he answered it. "Hello?"

"Shinji? This is Dr. Akagi from NERV. There's an angel coming." After a few seconds of Ritsuko talking to someone in the background she continued. "Get Ranma for us, would you? He isn't answering his phone."

"Right." Shinji said, looking over to see that Ranma was still slowly eating his lunch. Hanging up his phone, Shinji ran over to the other pilot. "Hey Ranma! There's an angel attack!" Shinji yelled, shaking Ranma by the arm.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking at Shinji. "Oh. An angel attack… right." He muttered, getting to his feet and jogging towards the school gates. Although Ranma was going at a pretty respectable pace, it was nothing compared to his usual rooftop hopping. Looking in concern after the receding form of Ranma, Shinji started out for NERV himself.

Later that day, Ranma and Asuka were sitting in their EVA units, waiting for the order to launch. Asuka was as excited as she always was at the thought of fighting angels, however Ranma seemed to just sit there, waiting for the final checks to be completed.

"All right pilots. Are you ready?" Came Misato's voice, from the screens at the front of Ranma and Asuka's entry plugs. After getting an enthusiastic confirmation from Asuka and a slight confirming nod from Ranma, Misato turned around and yelled, "EVAs launch!" Right after she said this, the two Evangelions were catapulted up to the surface of Tokyo 3.

From the corner of the control room, Ritsuko blinked in confusion. "That's strange…" She muttered, looking at her console.

"What's wrong Ritsuko?" Misato asked, looking over at the doctor.

Ritsuko double checked her readings and spoke up. "Pilot Saotome's Sync rate has dropped to 60."

"What?" Misato asked, looking at Ritsuko in surprise.

"I said that Ranma's synchronization rate has dropped to 60." Ritsuko said, looking worriedly at the panel in front of her. "It's steadily dropping, but it's going slow."

Misato looked worriedly at the screen where the two EVA units were facing off against a gigantic spider like angel.

Asuka charged forward first, swinging downwards with a progressive Axe that she had taken from a supply stash. The angel's AT field repelled her axe, causing her to fly backwards and fall to the ground. "Son of a…" Asuka muttered, before climbing to her feet. As this happened, Ranma began to march forward, his EVA going at a slow and steady pace.

As Ranma walked, a leg from the spider like angel whipped out and speared Ranma's EVA through the leg. Without uttering a single cry of pain, Ranma reached down and ripped the leg out of his EVA's knee, incidentally ripping it in half.

"What the hell is he doing?" Misato wondered, as she saw Ranma's EVA get speared by another spider leg, making no attempt to get out of the way. As before, Ranma simply reached down and ripped the spider leg in half, getting it out of the hole in his own EVA's body.

When Ranma had gotten close enough, he raised his EVA's right arm to it's shoulder, taking out it's progressive knife. The angel, which now only had four legs, whipped one more out and managed to burry it in the EVA's lower chest. Ranma paid the pain no mind as he smashed the arm with the prog knife deep into the angel's body, hitting it's core. As the angel fell to the ground, Ranma's EVA's arm came tearing out of it's body and he began to walk for the lift to return to base.

"E…Engelkind?" Asuka stuttered, looking in shock at the purple EVA, holes pierced in both legs and it's stomach and gore covering it's right arm. "What the hell happened to you?"

As Ranma walked his EVA back to it's cage at central dogma, he felt a sense of slight anger, pain and fear from it. "I'm sorry Unit 01. I'll try not to hurt you as badly in the future." He said, before ejecting his entry plug. For a moment, he felt a sense of understanding from the Mecha before he climbed out of the plug, falling to the ground due to the reflected injuries on his legs and stomach. It was a good thing for him that his sync rate on that mission had been so low, otherwise he would have had two holes drilled into his legs and a gash across his stomach. Since his sync rate was lower, all he had were a couple of cuts on his legs and a deeper one on his stomach. They still hurt like hell, though.

A little later, After Ritsuko had patched him up, Ranma sat in Misato's office, the woman pacing around the room angrily and glairing at him.

"What the hell were you thinking, Ranma?" Misato asked, looking intently into Ranma's bright blue eyes.

"I had to stop the angel." Ranma said, flatly.

Misato sputtered for a moment before her intent look turned into a hard glare. "You have to stop the angels but you also have to keep yourself and your machine safe. That was NOT what you were doing today. What you did was just plane reckless and stupid!"

Ranma nodded slightly, just agreeing with whatever Misato said.

Seeing the fact that he wasn't paying attention, Misato threw up her hands in resignation. "Look. I know you're shaken up from what happened yesterday, but Rei is going to be fine. Ritsuko told me today that she was making a full recovery and you couldn't help what you did. Now, straighten up and fly right or I'm assigning Shinji as the main pilot of Unit 01 and putting you in the backup position. Is that clear?"

Ranma nodded again, this time in actual understanding before muttering "Yes Ma'am." And hanging his head.

Misato's hard glare softened into a look of sympathy as she saw his downcast face. "Look. I'm sorry that I have to be so hard on you about this, but NERV needs all of you pilots. You of all people should know what you're fighting for here. Just try and keep yourself alive, after all, Rei'd be pretty disappointed if she got out of the hospital and you were dead."

Ranma nodded again before walking out of Misato's office, Misato looking after him worriedly.

In the middle of the night that night Ranma woke up with the strangest feeling. It was almost like the feeling he got from his link to EVA 01 when it was active, but this was more of a pulling sensation. Slipping on a pair of pants and a shirt, Ranma walked out of his apartment, heading towards NERV HQ.

He knew that the compulsion to go to NERV was different from the one that had come from the second angel, lylith, because the source of the sensation was nowhere near terminal dogma. Slipping his card into the card reader at the front gates to NERV, Ranma walked into the complex and down a long series of hallways. Stopping in front of a large metal door, Ranma saw a retinal scanner.

Suddenly, a memory of one of the angelic abilities that his other half had been holding back from him hit Ranma. An angel is greatly influenced by the environment and physical conditions it is born into, as well as those it grows in. For example, the Eighth angel was adapted to it's volcanic living environment and the sixth was adapted to it's aquatic one. One of the adaptations that Ranma had gained was the ability to shape shift. Mind you, this was restricted to humanoid forms, and he still couldn't control his curse with it, however it would be greatly useful here.

Closing his eyes, Ranma thought of the physical appearance of Gendo Ikari. Concentrating hard, he felt his body shift as if the curse had taken effect and he opened his eyes. He could feel a constant strain on his energy reserves now, as if what he was doing was draining him, however he ignored it and walked up to the retinal scanner. Tapping the button beneath it, Ranma let it sweep back and forth over his eye before the metal door in front of him hissed open.

Walking through it, Ranma saw a large room, with it's walls illuminated by a soft reddish light. Stepping partially into the room, Ranma noticed that there were many bodies floating in a large tank that was imbedded into the walls. They appeared to be floating in LCL… and they all looked like Rei Ayanami.

Slowly walking forward, Ranma noticed that one of the girls who looked like Rei was moving slightly, her hand pressed up against the glass. Running into the room, Ranma let the small energy drain he felt go and his body quickly changed back to it's normal form.

"Rei… is that you?" Ranma wondered, walking up to the tank and putting his hand up next to that of the girl inside. She smiled slightly, and Ranma walked over to the computer panel in the middle of the room, rapidly tapping buttons. He didn't really know how he knew how to use the computer system, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Draining the LCL in the chamber slightly, Ranma caused a hatch at it's top to open, allowing Rei to climb out.

Going back to the side of the tank, Ranma helped her out of it.

As Ranma hugged the naked form of Rei, who was shivering slightly, the two heard a voice coming from the door to the room. "What the heck is going on in here?"

Notes.

Just a thought. I wonder what would happen if Ranma was mimicking someone and got hit with the wrong temperature water… Scary thought. Oh, as for why this is one of his angelic abilities, He already shifts forms a lot and his abilities grow to adapt to his environment, both internal and external. Now, think carefully about Ranma… you scared yet?

HAHA! A cliff hanger! I love my life!

* * *

**Chapter 25: Chapter 25 You guessed it, No title**

* * *

Note. Read before bitching.

Look. Here's the deal. The writer's block on this thing is so thick I could carve a bloody house out of it, but I've tried to update it. I know the chapter is sub par, I know it is NOT my best work, but bare with me here, all right? I'm hoping it will get me moving again, but I doubt it.

Chapter 25.

Ritsuko Akagi rubbed her eyes as she stared at the screen of her computer, looking over various parts of the schematics of the MAJI system computers. There had been a small bug plaguing the system recently, involving the old account data from the pre-Magi sections of the database, and she was trying to fix it.

Standing from her position at the main work terminal in the computer lab, Ritsuko cracked her back and walked for the door, hitting the power off switch on her way out. She would deal with this problem in the morning. As she walked through the halls of NERV HQ, Ritsuko noticed that the door to one of the more sensitive bio labs was open. Walking to the door to see who was in there, she saw that the room was lit up and the computer was on. "What's going on in here?" She asked, walking in and looking around. As she reached the centre of the room, Ritsuko realized that something was missing. The tank full of copies of Rei had been opened, and one of them was missing. The problem was that she was nowhere to bee seen in the lab.

Restraining herself from panicking, Ritsuko calmly walked to the computer terminal and accessed it, pulling up a list of recently issued commands and log in attempts. Her eye twitched violently as she read the first line. 'Well, at least she's safe.' She thought, with a resigned shrug. Ritsuko would have to have a talk with Gendo about this. Entering a set of keys that would create a data disc copy of the log, Ritsuko also downloaded the feeds from all nearby surveillance cameras. Taking one last, cautious look around the room, she walked out and down the hall, not wanting to deal with THIS tonight.

Ranma sighed in relief as he let the strain of the modified Umisen Ken cloak that he had been maintaining fall, revealing himself still holding Rei near the side of the clone tank. 'That was close…" He thought, before returning his attention to his precious cargo. Whatever had been going on in here must have been quite a shock to her system, since she was asleep in his arms. Taking off his Chinese shirt, Ranma rapped Rei in it, leaving him in only his undershirt and pants. Standing up, he walked out of the room, headed for his and Rei's apartment.

The next morning, Rei opened her eyes to find herself tucked into her bed at home, with the sun poking through the window. 'Was that all a dream?' She wondered, flashes of the power outage and the events that had occurred during it coming through her mind. Raising her arm, which had a very small number 3 tattooed into it's upper portion, she slowly shook her head. It hadn't been a dream. How did she get here, then?

Kicking her feet off of the side of the bed, Rei sat up, noticing for the first time that she was wearing one of Ranma's silk Chinese shirts. Touching the soft material, she wondered how it had gotten there, before a few more memories came to her. Ranma letting her out of the cloning tank, and his concerned face looking down at hers. For a moment, an image of an orange eyed Ranma trying to choke the life out of her tried to intrude on the scene in her memory, but she forced it out of her mind. That couldn't have been Ranma… at least he couldn't have been in his right mind. Rapidly getting dressed, Rei walked out of her room to find Ranma sitting at the kitchen table in the middle of the apartment, a breakfast for two set out next to him.

"Hey Rei. You're awake." Ranma said, his voice dripping with relief. "I thought I'd really screwed up last night when you wouldn't wake up when I got you home."

Rei shook her head. "I'm fine, Ranma." She said, before sitting down at the table next to him and beginning to eat her breakfast.

"Rei…" Ranma started, hesitantly. "Can you tell me what was up with that big room ya were in when I found you? I mean all those other copies of you and stuff…" He trailed off, uncertainly.

Rei stopped eating her breakfast and looked at Ranma. She could see that he was honestly wondering, but she could also feel that she was afraid of his rejection when he found out that she was just a copy of the original Rei who he had gotten to know… then again, that Rei was also a copy, and Ranma had been through a lot in his life, so he just may understand.

As Rei began to tell Ranma about the cloning project and what she knew of the Dummy plug system, He began to get more and more angry at Ritsuko and Gendo, but he honestly was surprised when Rei told him that she was a clone. "But… you have the same Chi signature and everything…" He said, looking at her in a mix of curiosity and disbelief. "Does that mean I really did kill you back at NERV?" He asked, his face clouding up with a look of sadness.

Seeing this, Rei leaned in closer to Ranma, looking into his eyes and seeing a deep well of grief and sorrow there. "No Ranma. I have the same memories of my last incarnation, and as far as I can tell, I'm the same person. You didn't kill me, and besides, you and I both know that it wasn't you in control back there."

Ranma nodded slightly, looking up at Rei and reading her Chi aura. As he did this, noting that it looked exactly as it had a few days before, he remembered a small lesson that a Sensei he had met on the road had taught him. No aura could be exactly the same as any other, no matter how skilled the manipulation. The aura was a reflection of the soul and couldn't be entirely hidden or disguised. Looking back at his plate, Ranma said one last thing to Rei before he continued eating. "Well, it's a little strange, but nothing worse than the usual, right?"

Rei felt incredibly relieved as she heard those words. "Right." She said, happily, before digging into her own food again.

Meanwhile, at NERV HQ, a far different scene was going on. Ritsuko marched into Gendo's office, interrupting a meeting between him and Fuyutsuki. "Sir, I need to talk to you." She said, slapping a data disk on the table.

Gendo looked up, irritated. "Can this wait, Miss Akagi?" He asked, looking at the disk.

"I don't think so sir." Ritsuko said, "It's about one of the pilots."

Gendo sighed and Fuyutsuki walked over to the corner of his desk. Picking up the disk that Ritsuko had put onto his desk, he slipped it into the terminal next to it and started the data reader. Looking over the information that came up, he raised an eyebrow. "What does ten year old JEHIRN logging data have to do with one of the pilots?"

He briefly noted that the date was rather wrong, before Ritsuko dropped a bombshell. "That record was made last night, sir."

"What?" Gendo asked, his hands falling to the keyboard to type a query on who had logged in and used such old database commands. His eyes widened as he got his answer.

Login: .research.

Password:Shinchan.

"Well, I noticed that some of the terminals still responded to the old command structure yesterday, and I was trying to correct it… I guess I was too late."

"But… this account name…" Gendo trailed off, his eyes widening.

"Check the surveillance footage." Ritsuko instructed, waiting to see Gendo's reaction. Cuing it up, Gendo saw a video feed of Ranma Saotome, standing in front of the door to the bio lab where the Rei clones were kept. The tape paused right after it showed his face, dissolving into static.

"This is why I wanted him pulled off of the EVA units." Ritsuko said, pointing at the logging data. "With Dr. Ikari's passcodes he could gain information on SEELE, hell, maybe the entire project."

"So Pilot Saotome is getting the memories of my wife, is that it?" Gendo asked, his voice steady.

"Well… essentially, yes." Ritsuko said, wondering what Gendo was thinking at the moment.

"Has he found anything sensitive yet?" Gendo asked, tapping his fingers against the desk he was sitting at.

"Well, he did gain access to Rei's Biolab and took her out of it, but the highest level thing he could have found out there would have been the Dummy plug system… You aren't going to have him killed or something, are you?" She asked, her eyes widening. Maybe reporting this to Gendo wasn't the best idea. She didn't want the plans of NERV exposed to the world, but she DEFINITELY didn't want a fourteen year old assassinated.

"Of course not." Gendo snapped, glaring at her. "We will keep him on as a pilot. We need to keep close track of him now anyways, and that will allow us to do so."

"But sir!" Ritsuko objected, loudly.

"That is my decision, Doctor." Gendo stated, evenly.

"Yes sir…" Ritsuko said, walking out of Gendo's office.

"Gendo, I hope you know what you're doing." Fuyutsuki asked, from next to Gendo's seat.

"Don't worry old friend. Things are going exactly as I wish them." Gendo said, lying through his teeth. In actuality, he was as clueless as everyone else, but he couldn't let anyone know that.

Later that day, Ranma was standing in the hall in front of the apartment, Ringing out her soaked pigtail and grumbling about sudden showers when Shinji, Kensuke and Touji came walking up, just as soaked.

"Hey guys. Get caught in the rain like I did?" Ranma asked, looking at their thoroughly soaked school clothes.

"Yep. It came outta nowhere." Touji said, as Kensuke and Shinji nodded.

"Come on guys. There're some towels in my apartment." Shinji offered, leading the other two to his door. Shrugging, Ranma decided to follow them.

As the four boys, well three boys and one girl at the moment, talked in the living room of Shinji's apartment, Asuka came walking out of her bedroom, wondering what all of the noise was about. "Hey you guys. Be quiet. I think Misato's sleeping." She yelled, making more noise than the others.

"Not anymore she isn't…" Ranma muttered, as she heard the rather familiar sounds of Misato crashing into her dresser while getting dressed.

"You're animated today Engelkind…" Asuka noted, seeing that Ranma no longer looked like death warmed over.

"Oh… Rei got out of the hospital today." Ranma said, modifying the truth slightly.

"Really? Where is she?" Asuka asked, looking around for the blue haired girl.

"Back in our apartment studying." Ranma said, in a disgusted tone. "She's making up for the school she's missed. I just said the heck with it and came here."

"Ah. Engelkind, the class delinquent." Asuka said, grinning. Ranma rapidly looked around for short black haired girls in yellow dresses before looking back at Asuka and sticking her tongue out at her.

"That's really mature, Ranma." Misato yawned as she walked into the living room, fixing the collar of her NERV jacket as she walked.

"Hi Misato. Did we wake you up?" Shinji asked, timidly.

"It's fine Shinji. I was supposed to wake up about now anyways… I hate night shift." Misato grumbled, glaring at an imaginary Gendo.

"Hey Misato san. Congratulations." Kensuke said, out of the blue.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking. "What're you congratulating her for?"

"Her promotion!" Kensuke said, glaring at Ranma. "Didn't you see the extra bar on her rank badge?"

Ranma scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. "Woops… I missed that. Sorry Misato."

The older woman shrugged. "Thanks Kensuke, but a promotion won't make much of a difference aside from more paperwork." Her face twisted into disgust at that thought. "Well, I'd better get going to NERV."

Misato walked out of the apartment, leaving the five children alone. Ranma shrugged, turning towards the door as well. "Guess I should go and see how Rei's doin. Just out of the hospital and all…" She said, before heading out.

"Yeash, the Engelkind's got it bad." Asuka said, smirking at the closed door.

"What do you mean, Asuka?" Shinji asked, puzzled.

"Backup? You know, I just may start having to call you oblivious if you can't figure THAT out. I mean, he's all depressed when she's in the hospital and then he's happy again when she gets out, not to mention that he's still worried sick about her."

"She's right. Ranma's got it bad." Touji chipped in. Kensuke nodded solemnly.

Shinji just looked around, kind of confused.

At about three o'clock the next morning, Misato was sitting in the NERV main control room with a cup of coffee in her hands. 'Yeh. Great. I get promoted to Major and end up sitting night duty. Give me my captaincy back…' She thought, sourly. In front of her, one of the night technicians was apparently playing solitaire on the sensor console. Absently kicking out with a foot, she pegged the back of her chair, startling her and making her hurriedly close the program. A few minutes later that same console started beeping. 'If she's still playing solitaire…' Misato thought, darkly.

Fortunately for the technician's career, she wasn't playing solitaire at the moment. "Major Katsuragi… I've got some strange readings in the earth's orbital track."

"In space?" Misato muttered, standing from her seat and walking to look over the tech's shoulder. "Is it a blue pattern?"

"Can't tell at the moment ma'am." The technician said, tapping buttons. We'll know soon. Should I call for Commander Ikari and Vice commander Fuyutsuki?"

"Don't bother. They boarded a plain to the Antarctic at midnight. We're on our own for this one." Misato said, staring intently at the console.

A few minutes later, the tech spoke up again. "Ma'am! Blue pattern detected."

Misato groaned as an alarm sounded all throughout NERV HQ.

* * *

**Chapter 26: Chapter 26 Meteoric descent**

* * *

It's alive Igor, It's ALIVE! BWAHAHHAHAHAHA!

Chapter 26. Meteoric descent.

Ranma rolled over in his bed as he tried to ignore the annoying ringing that he kept hearing. He covered his ears with his pillow, but it did no good. Sighing in defeat, He reached over and fumbled for the cellular phone that rested on his bedside table.

"Hello?" Ranma asked, muzzzily, the sleep having not yet fully cleared from his brain.

"Pilot Saotome? This is Central Dogma. We've picked up an angel approaching." Came the voice of a woman that Ranma had never heard before.

Ranma's sleep fog cleared instantly, and he bolted upright in his bed. "An angel? Right. I'll be right down." He said, before hanging the phone up. Quickly getting dressed, Ranma opened the door to his room to see Rei waiting in the hall.

"Are you ready to go, Ranma?" Rei asked, already fully dressed.

"Yeh, let's go." Ranma said, as the two ran out of the apartment, Shinji and Asuka following from the next one down.

As the four children ran down the street, Ranma keeping his speed down to stay with the others, they looked to see if they could see any sign of the angel. There was no monstrous beast stomping through the city, but the incident with the Ninth angel had shown that the angels didn't have to be incredibly noticeable. Finally, Asuka noticed something. "Hey, Backup. Does that shooting star look odd to you?" She asked, pointing at something that was streaking across the sky.

"Yeh, it kind of does." Shinji said, before the "Shooting star" made impact with the ocean outside of the city and they could hear the impact even from where they were.

"Hurry it up you two!" Ranma yelled, as he and Rei ran several metres in front of them. Shinji immediately complied, Asuka following with some comments about pushy Engelkinds.

"Glad you could make it." Misato said, yawning, as the EVA pilots stood before her in a briefing room. "Well, I guess we should get started on this briefing, ne?" She asked, walking over to a screen. Tapping a button next to it, She brought up an image of a creature that was floating in orbit above the planet.

"What the heck is that?" Ranma asked, awed.

"That, is the eleventh angel." Misato said, pushing another button and causing the screen to show a massive crater in the ground near Tokyo 3. "It is some sort of orbital bombarder. It's been dropping some sort of AT field charges, apparently trying to triangulate on the Geofront. The U.N. has tried an N-2 device on it, but it had no effect against the AT field. We don't have any weapons that can penetrate it from this range, either."

"So what are we going to do? Let it destroy us?" Asuka asked, indignantly.

"Of course not!" Misato snapped, slamming her fist down on the briefing room table. "The only problem is that the only plan we've come up with is rather… risky."

"Risky? How?" Shinji asked, sounding slightly scared.

"We plan on catching the angel when it falls on Tokyo 3. One of its' AT blasts isn't enough to get through the Geofront's armour, so we believe that it will send itself down on us, like a living bomb. Our only hope is to have the EVA units use their AT fields to catch the thing before it hits."

"We're gunna play catch with something that could blow up the Geofront?" Ranma said, incredulously.

"It's the only way I can find to stop it." Misato said, shrugging. "The Magi only give it a 12.6 chance of success, but the laser cannon operation against the fifth angel only had an 8 chance, so we've got better odds this time than we had then."

"That is hardly reassuring, Misato san." Rei said, dryly.

"I'm sorry, but it's all we have." Misato said, shrugging helplessly. "Now go and suit up for a test run, and if we pull this off, I'll buy you all a stake dinner."

"Yes Ma'am!" The four children said, turning to leave the room.

Once the children were out of earshot, Misato sighed and slumped to the chair next to the briefing table. "I can't believe we're doing this." She muttered, shaking her head.

Ritsuko, who had been standing in the corner and not speaking for the entirety of the briefing, walked up to her. "They'll be fine, Misato. Due to the AT fields, the EVAs are probably going to be the safest place to be during this operation."

"I hope so Ritsuko. I really hope so." Misato said, looking to where the children had left.

During the walk to the changing room, the four children were talking. "Feh, a stake dinner? People from the second impact generations are SO cheap!" Asuka said, throwing up her hands.

"Jeas, thanks Asuka." Ranma muttered, glaring at her. "She just wants to give us incentive and cheer us up. She really doesn't want to send us out to do this, but she has to."

"Well, I'm glad I'm not going." Shinji said, sighing in relief.

"You are a coward, aren't you Backup? You know you won't do anything great if you always run from your problems." Asuka said.

"Asuka san was not very tactful in saying it, but she is right Shinji san. Sometimes you have to do dangerous things." Rei chipped in.

"I Guess so, but can't I be glad that I don't have to this once?" Shinji asked.

Ranma smirked. "I'm sure we won't hold it against ya."

"Rei, you're kind of quiet." Asuka said, looking over to the blue haired girl. "Aren't you looking forward to the stake dinner?"

"She don't like meat." Ranma explained, before an idea struck him. "You wanna go out to a restaurant after we get back Rei? I know this one place with a real good salad bar."

"That would be nice." Rei said, smiling.

"Ah, the Engelkind and Rei are going on a date!" Asuka singsonged as the group approached the entrance to the locker rooms.

"Oh Yeh Asuka. That's real adult of ya." Ranma said, sarcastically. Rei just blushed.

Half an hour later, Ranma ran frantically towards the target point in unit 01, the counter on his screen counting down rapidly. Five seconds before he got there, the counter hit zero. "Damn!" Ranma yelled, slamming his fist against unit one's hand controls.

"Congratulations Ranma, you're dead!" Misato snapped, angrily.

"I'm sorry Misato. This simulator slows me down and the angel's drop point isn't calculated fast enough." Ranma complained.

Misato sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Yes, I know. This simulation was prepared very quickly but Rei has managed to complete it once."

"Once out of how many tries?" Ranma asked, worriedly.

"fifteen." Misato said, resignedly.

"A one in fifteen chance ain't all that good." Ranma commented, worriedly. If only we had more EVAs to put in the area."

"But we don't." Misato interrupted. "Now get back on task."

"Wait a second. We don't need more EVAs, we need more AT fields!" Ranma said, excited.

"Yes, what's your point, Ranma?" Ritsuko asked, as she monitored Asuka in another simulator.

"How do ya think our chances would be if we had four AT fields instead of three?" Ranma asked.

"Well, it would increase our coverage area, maybe a fifty fifty chance but…" Ritsuko said, as the light began to dawn. "No WAY!" She yelled, after she realized the full implications of Ranma's suggestion.

"What is he talking about, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, looking confused.

"He wants to go out without an EVA unit and use his personal AT field." Ritsuko snapped. "That's suicide!

"And it might be the only way to stop the angel!" Ranma snapped back.

"Enough!" Misato yelled, interrupting the two. She hated being the commander of NERV when Gendo and Fuyutsuki were away, it always left decisions like this on her lap. "How much would an extra AT field improve our chances?"

"Significantly but…" Ritsuko started, before she was cut off.

"Pilot Saotome, Get out of that simulator. Send Shinji to man Unit 01 and see if you can round up someone with a helicopter to get you around the city." Misato ordered, seeming to be hesitant to do it.

"Yes Ma'am!" Ranma said, exiting the simulator.

Ranma found Shinji sitting in the changing room, staring down at his lap. "Hey Shinji." He said, entering the room.

"Ranma?" Shinji asked, looking at him in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Well, We've got a new plan that could increase our chances of stopping the angel, but you'll have to pilot Unit 01. I'm sorry. I know ya didn't want to."

"It's Okay. I keep remembering what Asuka said earlier. I've been running from the EVA units ever since I got here… I'm not going to run away anymore." Shinji said, clenching his fist.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. We really need you out there." Ranma said, looking after Shinji as he headed for the simulation room.

On a small ship in the middle of the Antarctic ocean, Gendo Ikari and Kozou Fuyutsuki stared out at the desolate wasteland that the area had become. "This is what Second impact caused." Gendo said, casting a look at the water around the ship, which almost looked red in the overcast daylight.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes, the place is so barren that we can't even survive here without technology."

"And that's why we have to stop the third impact, no matter what." Gendo said, his casual glance at the water now turning into a glare.

"And what of SEELE?" Fuyutsuki questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"We'll deal with them when they come." Gendo said, narrowing his eyes.

"I hope so, old friend. I really hope so." Fuyutsuki said, staring at the massive length of the object that the ship they were on had retrieved from the sea.

Two hours later, Shinji, Asuka and Rei were buckled into their entry plugs, Ranma sitting in a helicopter that was being piloted by one of the Central Dogma techs. "All right. Is Everyone ready?"" Misato asked, her voice coming through the EVAs' comm. systems and a headset that Ranma was wearing.

"I'm ready." Ranma said, as he heard the acknowledgments of the other EVA pilots.

"All right. All units report to the following Co-ordinates." Misato said, relaying off a set of four street intersections in Tokyo 3.

"How did you get these locations?" Shinji asked, curiously.

"I guessed." Misato said, plainly. If the EVAs hadn't been restrained, All three pilots would have face faulted. Ranma actually did.

As the EVA units got into position, Each pilot was thinking about something. Rei was worried about Ranma, Asuka was just hoping that the mission was going to go well and Shinji was so high strung that his knuckles were turning white on the stocks of his EVA's manipulators. Everyone could swear that they heard someone whispering, "I mustn't run away," over and over, but they dismissed it as bad reception.

"All right. The angel has entered the earth's atmosphere and we have lost contact with it. It is within intercept range and the Magi will give you detailed co-ordinates when it comes out of the blind spot." Ritsuko said, looking at a monitor in front of her.

"All four children acknowledged, but the person in Ranma's helicopter was looking decidedly nervous.

As the angel plummeted and tension built, the Evangelion units began shifting nervously, as if their pilots were getting more and more agitated. Suddenly, Ritsuko's voice broke through the tension like a whip crack. "Angel has re-appeared on Magi Sensors. Shinji, Ranma, you are the closest to it. GO!"

"Roger." The two pilots said at the same time, Ranma giving his pilot a frantic go signal with his hands.

Shinji ran all out, frantically trying to get to the location of the plummeting angel before it hit the ground. Just before it was too low for him to catch, he dove underneath it and erected his AT barrier, forcing the Angel to stop descending. As Shinji's AT barrier started to fail, The Helicopter that contained Ranma and the tech arrived.

"C'mon!" Ranma yelled, grabbing the other man by the uniform and pulling him out of the machine.

"What the hell are you doing!" The tech screamed, as Ranma caught him and hit the ground running. He made it under Unit 01 and it's AT field just as the angel was starting to self destruct, and frantically threw his own shield up to protect the unit and the people in and under it. There was a thunderous explosion as the angel let off a pillar of light that flew straight into the sky, before it exploded.

"Blue pattern… destroyed." Ritsuko reported, looking over her console. "The only blue pattern in the area is Pilot Saotome. We did it!"

The NERV control room burst into cheers as all of the tension of the angel attack dissipated at once.

Later that night, all four EVA pilots were standing in front of a static filled screen, with "Audio only" written on it in black lettering.

"Well, I can see that the promotion of Major Katsuragi wasn't a mistake." Gendo's voice said, coming from the screen. "Very nice work Major."

"Thank you sir. Misato said, smirking proudly.

"Oh, is the pilot of Unit 01 there?" Gendo's voice asked, still from the static filled screen.

"Yes, I'm here." Shinji said, uncertainly.

"That was good work out there Shinji. Very good work." Gendo said, causing Shinji to get a very surprised look on his face.

As the transmission from Gendo ended, Misato turned to the children. "So, how about I go and get that stake dinner I promised you?" She said, looking them over.

"No thanks, Misato." Ranma said, shrugging his shoulders. "I promised Rei that I'd take her somewhere."

Rei looked surprised for a second before she smiled, and the two left the room.

"Well, how about you two?" Misato asked, looking at Shinji and Asuka.

They shrugged. "Sure, I guess." Shinji said, Asuka nodding in agreement.

An hour later, as they were eating bowls of Ramen, all Misato could afford, Shinji looked at Asuka. "Hey Asuka, why do you pilot Evangelions?" he asked, bluntly.

"That's a strange question." Asuka said, before starting to think. "I guess I do it to get recognition, to prove that I'm a good pilot. Why do you do it backup?"

Shinji shrugged. I"… I think that I do it so that I can do something good." He said, remembering back to what Asuka had said earlier.

Asuka didn't know how to respond to that, so the two just ate in silence for the rest of the meal.

Misato just looked at the two strangely, eating her Ramen and wishing that she had some beer to mix into it.

END.

I made a promise when I was on chapter 4 or so of this fic. That was that I would NEVER let it die unless it just became a complete piece of crap. I intend to keep that promise. Even though it may take me a LONG time to get my chapters out, I will NEVER give up on this story completely.

* * *

**Chapter 27: Chapter 27, Evangelical Intrigue**

* * *

Note on continuity. The Eleventh angel doesn't happen. I didn't miss it, it doesn't happen. This is simply because Ranma took the place of an angel, plus the fact that I couldn't think of any good way to re-write that one and it was one of the major causes of my writer's block.

Chapter 27, Evangelical Intrigue.

Ranma yawned as he contemplated getting out of bed. He was really tired, but he had promised Rei that they would go down to the NERV HQ gymnasium to spar and he didn't like breaking his promises, especially to her. It had been about a week since the attack of the last angel and the time that Ranma considered their first date, and he was beginning to realize that he really did feel something for the blue haired girl. 'Why do I always fall for girls with blue hair?' He thought, chuckling as he got up and slogged his way over to his dresser in order to get dressed. He looked fondly at the image of Akane and the rest of his old family that sat on the top of his dresser before straightening his shirt and heading out.

HR

Gendo Ikari sat in the SEELE conference room, looking around at the twelve massive monoliths around him.

"Gendo, we have reason to believe that you are not proceeding with the plan." Came the voice of Chairman Kiel, from the SEELE one monolith.

"What do you mean?" Gendo asked, trying to keep cool even among the great governmental powers that surrounded him.

"We have received intelligence that a member of your organization went rogue and was classified as the ninth angel. We ALSO have evidence that not only did it make it into the core of the complex, but it almost killed another pilot."

"All Lies." Gendo insisted, vehemently.

"Are you telling us that this did not happen?" Keel asked, the black monolith giving away nothing of his expression. "You do know that lying to this committee is punishable by death, correct?"

"Yes, sir. I know that. Yes, I am telling you the truth." Gendo said, staying with his story. "The ninth angel was an insectoid creature that did not come anywhere near NERV, and the Tenth has attacked since then."

"I see." Keel said, his expression still unreadable and his tone of voice giving nothing away. "Gendo, you may leave."

"Thank you sir." Gendo said, standing and walking from the room.

"What are we to do about him?" SEELE 10 asked, in a shrill and German accented voice.

"we will do nothing, for now." Keel said. "How goes the construction on the new EVA units?"

HR

Later that day, in the NERV Gymnasium, Ranma and Rei were trading fast blows, Rei's form having clearly improved since she had started her training. The security men who had been working out in the area, as always, watched on as the two children fought. Ranma came in with a low sweep that almost knocked Rei down, but she jumped over it and then came down on the leg, trying to pin it. Ranma jerked it out of the way and tried a punch, which, since it was slower than usual, Rei dodged. The two kept on like that for a little while until Rei had been taken down five times, where upon they began meditation. Ranma hated doing this, but Rei didn't seem to have the natural abilities with Chi that he had and it was a necessary evil.

"All right Rei, try to focus on your centre like the scroll told you to and see if you can move it around." Ranma explained, as he sat with his eyes closed. A very small battle aura had built around him as he gave the instructions, and Rei began to radiate one as well, but in a dark red light. The guards that were standing around and watching gasped in amazement as they saw this display. Hearing the gasps, Ranma opened his eyes to see Rei's aura. "That's strange." He muttered, looking confused.

"What's strange, Ranma?" Rei asked, her eyes still closed.

"Well… The colour of Aura you're using. It's not very common. I'd say it was anger, but it's too dark and you don't seem all that angry to me." Ranma said, still confused.

"Are you sure you haven't seen it before?" Rei asked, worried.

"Well, I think I have once or twice but…" Ranma said, before breaking off. "Rei, what did you use to centre yourself?"

"I think it was my Eva… and you." Rei said, slowly.

Ranma blushed brightly. If what she said was right, and he remembered that colour of aura from the correct place, Rei was either deeply in love with Her EVA or him, and he could guess which it was. "Well, this lesson's over for now." He stammered, still blushing.

"What's wrong, Ranma?" Rei asked, worried. Ranma had been taking her through lessons calmly and then he had seen her aura and he was stammering and blushing. "Did something embarrass you?"

Ranma was caught flat footed, so he decided to respond with the truth. "Well… erm, Your Aura."

"My aura?" Rei asked, leaving the sentence open to continuation.

"That colour is love, Rei. Or at least an emotion like it. It's either love or lust." Ranma explained, still blushing and in a quavering voice.

"Oh, I see." Rei said, also starting to blush.

Misato, who had come in to watch the show of Ranma and Rei sparring, walked up to the two of them grinning like an idiot. "So, you love Ranma, Rei?" She asked, mischievously.

'That was really subtle, Misato.' Ranma thought, but refrained from saying it. "C'mon Misato. Leave her alone." He said, instead.

"Oh, and you're defending her. How cute." Misato said, giggling.

"C'mon Rei, let's go get some lunch and get rid of her." Ranma said, walking towards the door to the room. Rei nodded in agreement, still blushing.

After the two of them left the room, Misato started laughing loudly. The guards just backed off slowly, not wishing to agitate the obviously unstable major.

HR

In another part of NERV, Asuka Langley Soryuu was staring at her EVA unit and thinking. Well, most people would call it Moping, but she would violently appose that decision, with a fist if necessary. The thing she was moping., er, Thinking about was the last few battles against the angels. Ranma, Rei and even Shinji had taken key positions in those fights, and there was Asuka, who did almost nothing. She sighed as she put her chin in her hands and stared at the mouth of her EVA Unit. Standing up, she glared determinedly at the Machine." That's it. I'm going to beat the next angel, by Myself if necessary!"

"All Evangelion pilots, please report to the simulator room. That's all Evangelion pilots to the simulator room." Came a voice from the intercom as Asuka made her vow. Running off of the catwalk and into the halls of NERV, she didn't see that Shinji was looking at her in concern from the scaffold surrounding unit 01.

HR

"So what's going on, doc?" Ranma asked, as he and Rei walked into the testing area, still wearing plug suits as that was what they were wearing when they were sparring.

Ritsuko, who was in the room along with Misato and Maya, smiled at the two. "Nothing much. We're going to try something with your EVAs. I should wait for Shinji and Asuka to show up before we start, though."

"Sure." Ranma said, as he and Rei found chairs and sat. Asuka Came in a few seconds later, followed by a slightly worried looking Shinji. No one seemed to notice his expression as the two sat down.

"All right. Now that everyone's here, let's get started." Ritsuko said, walking to the centre of the room. "What we're doing today is cross synchronization tests. These tests should show whether one EVA pilot can use someone else's EVA, just in case."

"You're going to let someone else use my Unit 02?" Asuka asked, gasping.

"Not if you're dead set against it. We do have three EVAs, after all. If Ranma and Rei don't mind then we'll use EVA 02 as a baseline." Ritsuko said, wondering why Asuka was so possessive of her Mecha.

"Sure, I don't mind." Ranma said, shrugging.

"It is fine with me as well." Rei said, looking at Asuka in concern. She wasn't exactly her closest friend, but it seemed that the redhead was exhibiting a sense of panic when another pilot using her machine was mentioned.

"All right then. Shinji, you stay outside. Ranma, Rei, prepare for the cross compatibility test. Asuka, suit up and report to your EVA." Misato said, sending the children off on their way.

After all three children were gone, Ritsuko smiled at Misato. "You're really good at acting like a responsible officer." She said, laughing.

"Hey! That's not fair. I am a responsible officer. Misato objected, restraining her own grin. "You know, Ranma said something like that about me being a responsible guardian a while ago."

"Was he right?" Ritsuko asked, curiously.

"I don't know." Misato said, as she turned around to look at the EVAs.

HR

Rei was floating in a field of memories, each one drifting by quickly. A valley of springs, a peaceful scene in a Dojo, fights with enemies, rivals, friends, and of course the final battle against one that was considered a demigod. All of these flashed past her so quickly that she couldn't really remember them, along with myriads of other experiences of one Saotome Ranma, as well as a few from Yui Ikari. The only thing she could say to quantify the experience was, "This chamber feels like Ranma."

"Is there something wrong Rei?" Misato asked, from her comm screen at the front of the cockpit. "Is the EVA rejecting you?"

"No. The EVA unit is accepting me. Everything is working well." Rei reported, feeling the neural links of EVA 01. The unit seemed to be reacting to her a little better than Unit 00 did, seeming not to try to break free of her control as much.

"How's her Sync rate?" Ritsuko asked, looking to Maya at a nearby console.

"It's looking good ma'am. She's got about as high a rate in Unit one as she does in Zero, and maybe a bit better."

"Good to hear. Continue with the tests." Ritsuko said, before turning to Misato.

"Why do you think she Syncs so well with Unit 01?" Misato asked, confused.

Ritsuko shrugged. "It could be because the Two EVAs were constructed similarly. Heck, for all we know it could be because she and Ranma like each other."

Misato snickered. "I'll have to tell Ranma you said that later. Speaking of which, Ranma. How are you doing in Unit 00?"

"I'm doing all right, I think." Ranma said, looking uncertain from his position in the blue Evangelion.

"You think?" Misato asked, concerned. "Should we pull you out of there?"

"No. I'm Okay, but the EVA seems to want to… take control of me. I'm finding it kinda hard to keep control."

"How do you mean?" Ritsuko asked, looking curious and slightly concerned as well.

Ranma shrugged. "I can't feel the EVA's emotions like I can with Unit 01, but I think it wants to do something. It…" His eyes widened in surprise. "It wants to attack the control centre."

"What?" Misato asked.. "Shut that thing down."

"It's all right, I got it under control. At least this tells me why Rei's got such a strong mind." Ranma said, calmingly.

"What do you mean by that?" Misato asked, now looking at the blue EVA as if it were going to bite her.

"Well, if she has to fight this feeling every time she gets into her Machine, she's gotta be pretty strong willed. That'd also explain why it went berserk the first few times you activated it."

"I see." Ritsuko muttered, looking contemplative. She had been forced to admit that Ranma knew what he was talking about when it came to EVAs a long time ago, and wondered what this meant. "Well Ranma. Please disconnect from the unit. The testing is over."

"All right doc." Ranma said, pushing the eject button. He breathed a sigh of relief as he left the EVA. Being in an Evangelion that he couldn't feel made him feel very strange. It was like he was possessing someone else's body or something. Of course, with the limited knowledge of the EVAs that he had, he thought that that was pretty much what he was doing. Towelling himself off in the changing room, Ranma noticed that Rei wore the same slightly discomforted expression that he did. "It felt strange, didn't it." He commented, talking to her over the dividing wall that separated the men's and women's sides of the changing room.

"Yes. As if I was somewhere I didn't belong. The EVA didn't reject me but…" Rei said, uncertainly.

"Just no link, eh?" Ranma asked, having managed to get fully dressed and now waiting next to the door.

"Yes, I suppose you could say it like that." Rei said as she walked up next to Ranma and the two left the room. As Ranma and Rei left, Asuka came in and looked around. Seeing no one inside, she sighed and slumped down on a stool. Even if she wouldn't admit it, she was kind of sad at being left out of the cross training experiments. Well, there was always switching her and backup, but letting Shinji pilot her unit 02 was just so… wrong. Slipping off her plug suit, she quickly put her street clothes back on and left herself.

HR

Meanwhile, half way across the city, Ryouji Kaji entered the side door of a broken down industrial complex. "This is the place?" He muttered, as he looked over the card that he held in his hand. "Seems like a real dump, just like all the others."

"I agree." Said the voice of Kaji's contact, who was kneeling in the wreckage of the place and petting a cat.

"Oh, I didn't see you there." Kaji said, startled.

"And that's going to get you killed some day, along with your talent for sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong." The woman said, concealing a smile.

"Well, you know me. If my nose isn't where it doesn't belong it doesn't feel at home." Kaji said, chuckling. "So this is the 107th dummy corporation that makes up the Marduke organisation?"

"Yes." The woman said, flatly. "The only one left is NERV, and we both know about it."

"So the Marduke institute is being manipulated by NERV as well?" Kaji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Correct, and I found something else." The woman said, holding out a tiny data chip.

"What's this?" Kaji asked, holding it up to the light.

"It's a bit of Data on one of the Evangelion Pilots. Should be very interesting reading." The woman said, before standing up. "Well, I have to go."

"All right." Kaji said, still studying the chip in his hands. "Thank you for your help."

"No problem Ryouji. Just don't get yourself killed, Hmm?" The woman said, walking off.

"I'll try." Kaji said, chuckling.

HR

Later that day, in a dark room, a figure of a woman was outlined in the shadows. "Well, Miss. I'm glad you decided to help us." Came the voice of Chairman Keel, from a monolith that faded into view in front of her.

"It's not like I had a choice." The woman spat, glaring at the monolith. "You made that pretty clear. I know what happens if I refuse."

"Well, I'm glad we have that cleared up." Keel said, with a harsh laugh. "Now, how about telling us what we need to know. As you know, Gendo has slipped his little leash and the intelligence agents are on his pay roll. You are our only source of information, and without you…" He left the sentence hanging.

"I know I know." The woman spat, angrily. "You'll invade NERV and get rid of us all, to hell with third impact."

"Exactly. Now start talking." Keel commanded, almost sounding smug.

END.

Notes: And the plot thickens…

* * *

**Chapter 28: Chapter 28 Kisses and parties**

* * *

Chapter 28. Kisses and parties.

Ranma groaned as he cracked his back, walking out of the classroom. He was so bored, it wasn't even funny. Seeing Shinji, Kensuke and Touji, he waved at them as he headed for his shoe locker. As he put his shoes away, he heard what sounded like a girl screaming from beyond an L shaped intersection. Dropping everything he was carrying, he ran towards the girl, not noticing a bucket of water that was resting in his path.

"That autta do it." Asuka grinned, as she hung up the cell phone and slipped it into her dress pocket. She hadn't been able to see Kaji in the last few days, and the call she had just made should fix that little problem. As she turned around to look at a rather bemused Hikari, she heard a crashing sound. She started to laugh as she saw Ranma, in girl form, sprawled out on the floor, Rei standing over her with a wash cloth that she had been ringing out. "Smooth Move, Engelkind." She snickered, as Ranma picked herself up.

"Yeh Yeh. Laugh it up." Ranma grumbled, ringing out the bottom of her Chinese shirt while Rei concealed a giggle. "I guess I should have been expecting this. I haven't had any accidents with water for the past few weeks." Then, remembering why she had come running in the first place, she looked at Asuka. "Why were ya screamin your head off, Anyways?"

Asuka sighed. "I was trying to call Kaji, but he wasn't home."

"That means you're going to be free today?" Hikari asked.

"Yeh… I guess, why?" Asuka asked, looking at her strangely.

"Well, My older sister's got a friend who wants to go on a date with you, and he asked me to set it up."

"What?" Asuka asked, as Ranma and Rei walked off to get Rei another wash bucket.

At NERV Headquarters, Misato was looking over Ritsuko's shoulder as she went over test results. "So, another wedding today, right?" She asked, sighing.

"Yep." Ritsuko said, typing in some commands to the Magi system. "It's like all of our friends are trying to get married before they're thirty."

"Yeh, and My wallet's going to be busted with wedding gifts." Misato complained, leaning back against the wall she was standing in front of.

"Don't grumble about it so much. Besides, I heard Kaji's going to be there." Ritsuko said, in a singsong voice.

"I do NOT like Ryouji Kaji!" Misato yelled, indignantly.

"Sure, sure." Ritsuko snickered, enjoying the fact that it was so easy to tease her friend.

Misato just hmphed and tried to ignore Ritsuko's snickering.

HR

Late that day, Ranma was sitting in the apartment, staring at the ceiling. "I'm bored." He muttered, bouncing a rubber ball off of the floor.

"Yes, there isn't really much to do here other than study, is there?" Rei asked, putting down her school book. "Maybe we should go and see Shinji san and Asuka san?"

"Nah." Ranma responded, still bouncing the ball. "Asuka and Misato went somewhere and Shinji's practicing his cello or somethin." Ranma stopped bouncing the ball off of the floor as he got an idea. "How about we go somewhere?"

"Go somewhere?" Rei asked, looking at Ranma questioningly.

"I dono. A movie or something." Ranma clarified, standing up.

"Is this a date?" Rei asked, genuinely curious.

Ranma shrugged. "Why not?" he asked, before the two left the house for a movie theatre.

One apartment over, Shinji Ikari slowly moved his hands over his Cello, trying to get some music out of it. He had stopped taking lessons several years ago and only really did it for something to do now a days, but it was relaxing and helped him think. What he was currently thinking about was his fellow pilot, Asuka. He wondered what was wrong with her, but didn't really have the confidence to ask. Sighing in frustration, he laid the instrument on the ground and picked up his head phones, turning on the music that he liked to listen to when he was conflicted about something. About ten minutes later, He heard the sound of the front door to the apartment opening and took off his head phones, laying them on his bed. "Misato, Asuka? Who's there?" he asked, sticking his head out of the room.

"It's me, backup." Asuka said, walking down the hall to her own room and flopping down there.

"What are you doing back here so soon?" Shinji asked, confused. "Weren't you on a date?"

"He was as boring as you, backup." Asuka said, sprawling out on her bed. "I just ditched him in line for the roller coaster."

'Nice girl.' Shinji thought, but had the good sense not to say it aloud.

"So what have you been doing here all by yourself?" Asuka asked, getting up and peaking into Shinji's room. "What's that thing?" She asked, pointing at the cello.

"It's a cello. A musical instrument that I play." Shinji explained, picking it up.

"Really? Can I hear some?" Asuka asked, seeming to really be interested.

"Well, I'm not very good." Shinji said, before picking up his bow and beginning to play.

Asuka listened for a few minutes, a small smile spreading across her face. "That was pretty good." She said, when Shinji stopped.

"Really?" He asked, surprised that Asuka would say anything good about him.

Seeming to realize what she had said, Asuka quickly amended her words. "For a backup, anyways."

Shinji sighed. "I figured that was what you meant."

HR

Ranma and Rei came out of the movie theatre, blinking in the reddening daylight. "That was an interesting old movie." Rei said, covering her eyes from the glair.

"Yeh, I always liked the Macross series." Ranma agreed, doing the same. As the two walked along back towards Misato's apartment, they were in a comfortable sort of silence. Approaching the place, Rei turned to Ranma.

"Ranma Kun. I… Have heard that there is something that couples do on dates that I want to try." She said, blushing a bit.

"Huh? What's that?" Ranma asked, blinking.

Before he could move, Rei had leaned forward and hugged him, planting a short kiss on his mouth.

"Gmph?" Ranma asked, his eyes widening. He had been kissed before, but the only thing that came close to this was the one time he and Akane had ever kissed, without tape, that is. It had been a few weeks after the failed wedding and it had felt wonderful. Ranma began to respond to what Rei was trying to do, before the two broke apart due to slight lack of breath.

"That was… All that I have heard it was." Rei said, with a small smile.

"yeh." Ranma responded, grinning back. "Well, Erm, we should get back, right?" he asked, since the previous comfortable silence had suddenly become uncomfortable.

"Yes, let's go back to the apartment." Rei agreed, as the two walked off.

HR

Misato and Ritsuko sat at a table, listening to speeches that were made by the husband and wife at the wedding. "Where is he…" Misato muttered, looking at the doors to the hall.

"You know Kaji." Ritsuko said, taking a small sip of her wine. "He'll show up eventually."

"I know, I know. He couldn't be punctual if you dragged him somewhere but still." Misato grumbled, still glaring at the offending door.

"I'm here." Came a voice from behind the two, causing Misato to almost swallow her tongue.

"How did you do that?" She demanded, wondering how he had gotten in while she was watching the door.

"A man has to have his secrets, no?" Kaji asked, sitting next to the two women.

"Sure, and you'd look like a respectable gentleman too if you'd shave that stubble of yours." Misato said, tugging on a piece of the offending hair.

Ritsuko giggled. "You sound JUST like a married couple." She said, dryly.

"Aw shut up." Misato growled, glaring at her old friend.

HR

Later on that night, Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji were sitting around a bar, drinking and laughing together.

"and then you guys disappeared for a whole week, and the entire school knew what was going on." Ritsuko giggled, downing a glass of wine.

Misato blushed at that, while Kaji chuckled. "I've got to go to the bathroom. Misato excused herself, before walking off.

The good humour stayed around for a moment or two before it seemed to die, without the more exuberant of the three drinkers.

"So, what were you doing in Tokyo 2 yesterday?" Ritsuko asked, a slight edge in her tone.

"I don't know what you're talking about Rits. I was here all day." Kaji said, casually.

"Look Kaji, just be careful, all right?" Ritsuko asked, seeming to be sad about something.

"Rits, I'm ALWAYS careful… but you can't get anywhere if you don't take a few risks!" Kaji said, seeming to raise his voice as Misato stumbled back to the table, rather unsteady on her feet.

"So, what's going on?" Misato asked, seeming not to notice the sombre conversation that had gone on before.

HR

At the Katsuragi apartment, Shinji and Asuka were both sprawled out on the floor, watching an old war movie. "This is really, really boring." Asuka complained, kicking her feet in the air.

"Yeh, I know." Shinji said, from his position next to her. "At least we aren't being attacked or fighting for our lives, though."

"Yeh, you always think like that, don't you backup?" Asuka asked, derisively. "You don't want to pilot your EVA, you're afraid of fighting the angels. Feh, what kind of a man are you?"

"Hey! I'm afraid of fighting the angels because… because…" Shinji said, trailing off. "All right, I don't know why. It just frightens me, okay? Something's got to frighten you like that doesn't it?"

"No way." Asuka objected, before becoming quiet and then staring at the television.

A few minutes of silence later, Asuka spoke again. "Backup, let's kiss."

"Huh? Why?" Shinji wondered, looking at Asuka in confusion.

Asuka shrugged. "Got nothing else to do." Asuka said, offhandedly. "besides, don't you want to kiss me?" After saying this, she posed seductively.

"I, I," Shinji stammered, before Asuka leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. As the two children kissed, Penpen walked into the middle of the room and looked around. Seeing the scene, the penguin decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retreated to his freezer home.

After a REALLY long kiss, Shinji pushed away from Asuka, gasping for breath.

"I can't believe I kissed you!" Asuka yelled, jumping to her feet and running off to the bathroom, gargling up a storm. Shinji just looked on, confused.

HR

"Oh, very adult Misato." Kaji muttered, as the aforementioned woman was slung over his shoulder. "Drink until you throw up."

"I know it was stupid. Remind me to never do that again, would ya?" Misato asked, from her huddled position.

"No problem. Piggy backing you home isn't exactly my favourite activity." Kaji said, with a grin that Misato couldn't see.

"Well thanks a lot." She slurred, trying to hit him in the head.

"hey, watch it. I'm the one who's carrying you here, remember?" Kaji growled, as he was slapped by Misato.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, letting the hand drop. "You know, I think I finally figured out why I ran from you." She commented, idly.

"Really?" Kaji asked, repositioning Misato's weight for easier carrying.

"I was afraid. You were too much like my father." She confessed, chuckling softly. "I thought I hated my father for abandoning me and mother when I was a kid, and there I go falling for a man that acts just like him. Then I went and ran off because you scared me."

"Come on Misato. I'm sure you weren't thinking like that." Kaji said, comfortingly.

"Put me down. I can walk now." Misato said, out of the blue.

"Okay…" Kaji said, letting her down to the ground, where she started to walk.

As if she wasn't ever interrupted, Misato kept on with her drunken mumbling. "Yes, I thought EXACTLY like that Kaji. I just ran away when I got scared. I, I'm no better than Shinji is. I just ran from my problems and I shouldn't ever have volunteered to take care of him!"

"Enough!" Kaji yelled, interrupting her personal denunciation. "That isn't true. You're a fine caretaker for Shinji and you're a beautiful woman."

"No I'm not." Misato snapped, looking down. "I even had to get myself drunk to confess this to you. "I'm a horrible woman and a horrible per…" Misato started, before being interrupted by a kiss. As Kaji continued to kiss Misato, he let the pair of high heels he was holding, The ones Misato couldn't wear because she was too drunk, fall to the ground with a soft clatter.

HR

At Misato's apartment, Asuka was staring resolutely at the television, not looking anywhere else. Shinji, on the other hand, was looking at Asuka in a mixture of worry and confusion. "Asuka, are you all right?" He asked, finally breaking the silence that had fallen after Asuka's gargling fit.

"I'm fine." Asuka said, her blank stare at the TV turning into a glair. As she contemplated committing unforgivably violent acts on Shinji, she heard the door to the apartment open. Getting up, she walked to the hall where the door was to see Kaji and Misato stumbling inside. "Kaji!" She said, happily, as she ran down the hall. She stopped when the two passed her, Kaji smelling of Misato's perfume. "Her Perfume…" Asuka said, her eyes filling with tears that she didn't let out.

"Hello Asuka, could you get Misato's bedroom door please?" Kaji asked, as he walked further into the house.

"Yeh, sure." Asuka said, running to comply.

After Kaji had settled Misato in her room, he looked to the two children. "Well, I'm heading out now."

"You could stay the night!" Asuka said, hopefully.

"Sorry Asuka. If I showed up at work wearing this," He pulled at the suit and tie he was wearing, "Dr. Akagi'd never let me live it down."

"Oh, all right." Asuka said, quietly, before turning her back as Kaji walked out.

"Asuka…" Shinji said, worriedly.

"I'm fine!" Asuka yelled, before running into her room and slamming the door.

Shinji continued to stare at Asuka's closed door for a short time before turning to head for his own room. Laying down on his bed, he looked up at the ceiling. 'Why can't I understand her?' He thought, not knowing that he was mirroring the thoughts of half of the male population of the planet.

END.

Notes.

Sorry that I copied the last half from the Episode so closely. I'm not very good at the angst and mushy stuff, so I had to use what I had. Oh, by the way, the very limited Ranma content of this chapter was INTENTIONAL. This chapter was for other characters to grow.

* * *

**Chapter 29: Chapter 29 Revelations: Asuka Part I**

* * *

Notes: I know things are starting to fall apart according to how the show had it going. I know that Kaji's role, for example, seems to be illogical and make little sense, however this is NOT cannon EVA and his role, along with most of the other inconsistencies, will make sense in time. I promise.

Chapter 29. Revelations: Asuka Part I.

Kaji walked down the dimly lit corridors of the lower levels of NERV, calling himself ten different kinds of idiot. The party had been just the night before, and the dim remnants of a hangover throbbed in his head. 'How could I let myself fall for her again?' he thought, approaching the card reader. Unfortunately, to him, Misato Katsuragi was like a bad stomach flue. You just couldn't get over her. Of course, the symptoms of infection by Misato were much more… pleasant. Typing a code rapidly into the key pad next to the reader, Kaji felt a cold metallic object pressing into his head.

"Hello Kaji." Misato said, in a cold and deadly voice.

"Hello Misato. I see you're sober this morning." Kaji said, casually as he reached into his pocket for something.

"Yes Kaji. Now how about you tell me what you're doing down here? Are you a security advisor for NERV or a spy from the U.N. or what?"

"Now now Misato, I'll give you my answers in a moment." Kaji said, withdrawing the object. "but first, I want to show you this!" Saying this, he slipped the hacked NERV security card through the reader, causing it to let off a shrill tone before the door in front of it slid open.

"What the hell is that?" Misato asked, as her gun fell from Kaji's head.

"That's what I want to know." Kaji said, as he stepped into the room and towards the suspended form of a person, it's lower half seeming to end just above the centre line of the torso, a long red pole sticking out of it. "I thought Gendo was giving Adam to SEELE."

"Adam?" Misato asked, "You mean this is the first angel?"

"I don't know." Kaji said, putting a hand to his chin. "NERV certainly has a lot of secrets. Come and I'll tell you who I work for, as you really seem to want to know."

"All right." Misato said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at Kaji. She didn't know what the hell the gigantic monstrosity that was pegged to the cross in the middle of the room was, but it was seriously raising questions about NERV's operation.

HR

Later on that morning, Ranma and Rei were having a nice and relaxing breakfast of Miso and rice. "So we have a sync test today, right?" Ranma asked, sipping some of the soup.

"I believe so." Rei said, reading over an article in the rather small paper that Tokyo 3 produced.

"Oh well. At least we're missin school." Ranma said, smiling. "Funny. We haven't been in school all that much for the past few weeks. Always an angel or somethin else. Not that I'm complaining, of course." He amended hurriedly, lest his luck change.

"Of course not." Rei said, with a small smile. Just after she said that, the two children heard what sounded like Asuka screaming.

Ranma bolted up from his chair, knocking it to the floor and heading for the door. Rei got up slowly, following him. "It is probably just Asuka san calling Kaji again." She said, remembering back to the incident with the wash bucket the day before and giggling.

"yeh, probably but we'd better check it out." Ranma said, as he opened the door.

As Ranma and Rei entered Misato's apartment, they were treated to a rather strange sight. Asuka, wearing only a red bath towel, was yelling at Shinji. "All you do is apologise. Don't you have any spine at all?" She asked, to be interrupted by Misato.

"Asuka, that's just Shinji's way, you know." The older woman said, leaning back in her chair and taking a chug of her can of beer. She seemed rather tired for some reason, but the children just ignored it.

"Misato, you're way too easy on him." Asuka said, adamantly. "You should really be stricter.

"Says the girl who's running around in a bath towel." Ranma snickered, from the door.

"Engelkind?" Asuka asked, noticing Ranma and Rei standing there. "Grr…" She muttered, before running off to the bathroom to put on the rest of her clothes.

"Don't let her bother ya Shinji." Ranma said, as Asuka left earshot.

"yeh, I guess." Shinji muttered, looking down at the bowl that was sitting in front of him, presumably filled with his breakfast food.

In the bathroom, Asuka was glaring at the mirror, looking at her reflection as she slipped her clothes on. "Stupid Engelkind embarrassing me like that." She grumbled, as she tugged her school dress down angrily. "I'll show him."

HR

At NERV HQ, Later on that day, all four EVA pilots were sitting in test plugs, going through sync tests. "Hmm." Ritsuko said, tapping some numbers on the screen. "Well, Ranma's at his usual insanely high rate, Rei's looking good. That's interesting." She said, as she got to the last two sets of numbers.

"What is it?" Misato asked, leaning over to get a look herself.

"It looks like Shinji's gotten a bit better. His Sync rate's higher than Asuka's or Rei's."

"Really?" Misato asked, surprised. "Well this sure will boost his self-esteem. Can I tell him?"

"Sure." Ritsuko said, shrugging and pointing to a Mic that was set up on the table nearby. "Just make sure to switch to his band first…" She started, but trailed off as Misato just started talking. "Oh, Never mind." She muttered, putting her hands to her temples and rubbing.

"Hey Shinji." Misato said, causing the aforementioned boy to look up at the screen at the front of his plug.

"Yes Misato?" Shinji asked, curiously. "How're my test results?"

"That's what I wanted to tell you. Aside from Ranma's scores, you're the top of the list. You're number one!" She said, giving the Ikari boy a victory sign.

"I'm… Number one?" Shinji asked, looking surprised. "Really?"

"Yep." Misato said, smiling.

"That's great, Shinji!" Ranma said, cutting in on the circuit.

"Congratulations, Shinji san." Rei contributed, smiling at him. From Asuka's plug, the German redhead seethed.

HR

KLANG! Asuka's locker door smashed against the far wall, causing it to vibrate unpleasantly and leave a quiet ringing in the air. "I can't believe this!" She said, angrily, as she pulled on her school uniform. "The Engelkind surpassing us I can take, he's not human after all but Backup?"

Rei just continued her own dressing without comment, only giving an almost unnoticeable wince at the proclamation of Ranma's angelic nature that Asuka didn't see.

"I mean, C'mon! Backup's better than me now? This is ridiculous!" Asuka moaned, shutting the door again.

"I'm going now." Rei said, in a subdued voice.

From the other side of the divider, Ranma listened to the rant with a look of concern on his face. 'Asuka, what's wrong with you?' He thought, but didn't give voice to his worries. Thankfully, Shinji had already left several minutes before and hadn't heard the German's rant.

As the three pilots were leaving the changing room, the angel attack alarm rang. "Great." Ranma muttered, re-entering to put on his plug suit.

"yes!" Asuka said, doing the same. "Now's my chance to prove that I'm just as good as backup. No, better!"

HR

Ranma sat in Unit 01, feeling the humming of the link to her in his Chi field. He hadn't felt this in a little while, and was kind of missing it. He patted one of his unit's manipulator handles, as if greeting a reliable horse, before Misato's face came up on the comm screen. "All right pilots. This is all the Data we have on the angel." She said, as a secondary screen displayed a statistical graph without much data on it other than the target's general location. "We're sending EVA 01 out to recon the target and putting the other two on backup."

"What? I'm on backup to the Engelkind?" Asuka asked, indignantly.

"yes Asuka, you are." Misato said, in a flat and authoritative voice that said "I will not be argued with."

"Fine. Unit 02 acknowledging backup position." She said, sullenly.

"Unit 00 is on backup as well." Rei said, confirming the order.

"Right. Launch EVAs!" Misato said, hoping for the safety of her pilots.

As Ranma got to the surface, he quickly saw the rather large black and white ball that was apparently the angel. "Man, that thing looks kinda like a panda." He said, having flashbacks of his father holding up various signs and playing with tires.

"Less comparison to animals and more fighting!" Asuka yelled, plaintively.

"Yeh, yeh." Ranma muttered, walking through the streets of Tokyo 3 in search of more information on the Angel. "There's somethin not right about this thing…" He muttered, trying to sense the target in front of him. All the other angels had radiated large Chi auras, large enough to be felt from several miles away. This one, however, was completely blank on his Chi senses.

"Aw, C'mon Engelkind. It's just another angel." Asuka said, going to her guard position and having a little trouble with her umbilical cable on the way, having to hook up a new one.

"I still don't know." Ranma said, feeling an unusual amount of trepidation at the just plain empty sensation he got from the angel. "I, Really don't like this."

"Be a man Engelkind!" Asuka said, before sighing in exasperation. "Fine. If you won't do it then I WILL!" Saying this, she swung out from the building she was hiding behind in order to shoot at the angel with a rifle that she had picked up.

"Asuka, no!" Ranma yelled, but it was no use. The angel had disappeared from the sky as quickly as the German girl had shot at it and suddenly a hole opened up beneath her.

"Wh… what's happening to me?" Asuka asked, flailing around in panic. "I, I'm being sucked in!"

"Asuka!" Ranma yelled, charging towards the second child's sinking form, until he saw the black shadow expanding towards his position. Rei had already begun to climb a nearby building to get away from it and Ranma reluctantly followed, the two helplessly watching as their fellow EVA pilot was sucked into the black hole, calling for help all the while.

"Asuka san…" Rei said, as she saw the end of Unit 02's outstretched left arm disappear beneath the midnight black surface.

HR

Twenty minutes later, The two remaining Evangelion units had been recovered and their pilots had disembarked. "Damn it!" Ranma yelled, as he punched a steel beam near where his EVA was stored. To the surprise of many of the nearby techs, the beam promptly buckled inwards.

"Ranma?" Rei questioned, walking up to the pigtailed boy nervously.

"I can't believe I let her charge in like that." Ranma said, shaking his head. "I saw it coming this morning, too."

"Asuka san made her own decision, Ranma. Besides, we could manage to get her back." Rei said, comfortingly.

Ranma sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I know but I still feel kinda responsible, y'know?" He asked, before the two headed for the briefing room where Misato and Ritsuko were undoubtedly waiting.

In the briefing room, Ritsuko stood in front of a computer generated set of diagrams while Shinji and Misato sat around the table. "Where's the boss?" Ranma asked, looking for Gendo and Fuyutsuki.

"Commander Ikari and Vice Commander Fuyutsuki had to be somewhere today." Misato explained, before grinning. "You do realize that you calling Gendo that drives him nuts right?"

"That's why I do it." Ranma responded, before falling into a more sombre mood. "So, anyone know what the hell happened to Asuka?"

Ritsuko spoke up, hesitantly. "Well, we have a hypothesis." She said, pointing at the diagram behind her, which showed Unit 02 surrounded by some sort of field. "I and the analysis team believe that EVA unit 02 has been sucked into something called a "Sea of Dirac" which was created by the angel."

"Sea of what?" Misato asked, puzzled.

"A sea of Dirac. It's a sub-dimensional pocket that can only be defined in abstract mathematical terms. Almost like another dimension." Ritsuko explained, clicking a button that caused the screen to shift to a view of the angel. "We believe that the angel is actually a two nanometre thick construct that consists of the Dirac's sea. The form in the sky is just an elusion that's created when the biological circuit of it's body closes."

"So it is like a shadow?" Rei asked, catching on first.

"Exactly." Ritsuko confirmed, nodding.

"So how do we get Asuka out of there?" Shinji asked, leaning forward in his chair, and reminding everyone that he was there.

Ritsuko sighed. "There lies the problem… we don't know."

"You don't know?" Shinji asked, incredulously.

"Well, nothing like this has happened before." Ritsuko said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "We've come up with a way of destroying the angel's body but… I'm rather hesitant to use it."

"Why?" Shinji asked, the other two pilots listening in, curious about Ritsuko's answer.

"Because, in all probability…" Ritsuko said, hesitant to say what came next. "It will kill Asuka."

"WHAT!" Everyone, including Misato, exclaimed in shock.

HR

Meanwhile, in a place that was not really a place, Asuka Langley Soryuu sat in her Evangelion unit, looking out at nothingness. "What the hell is going on here?" She asked, trying to get anything to come up on her sensors. "Engelkind, Rei, Anyone?" She asked, consciously telling her EVA to broadcast her voice on all possible frequencies. "Can anyone hear me?" The last bit was whispered in an almost panicked tone as Asuka's face began to be overcome with a look of fear. "Anyone, please respond…"

Getting tired of sending out distress calls that were going unanswered, Asuka de-activated her synchronization system and leaned back in her chair, looking at the left wrist of her plug suit to see a tiny timer moulded into the material. "Fourteen hours, huh?" She asked, sighing. "Well, This was a great way to show that you could beat the Engelkind, Asuka." Letting out a short and bitter laugh, she tried to get to sleep and forget where she was for the time being, in order to pass the time more quickly.

END.

So, did any of you see this coming? It kind of snuck up on me as well, to be completely honest. Well, tell me what you think.

Oh, an off story note I need help on. I posted a short oneshot recently, not telling you what it's called for fear of being accused of plugging my other fics. The ones who read it know what I'm talking about. Anywho, please post whether you wish me to continue it to show the aftermath of Ranma's actions. I didn't really think it was necessary, but I've had four requests to continue it and was wondering if I should. Input is always welcome!

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**Chapter 30: Chapter 30 Revelations: Asuka Part II**

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I've decided to make that story I mentioned Continue, however, it won't be for a while. Anywho, here's the next chapter of AOL! By the way, sorry that this follows what my reviewers said so closely… I guess I'm getting predictable in my old age. :D

WARNING: This episode is going to be as stoned an introspection as the original with Shinji was. Lots of boredom and psycho analysis, but I felt that it needed to be done to reveal a bit about my Asuka character, and keep in sync with the EVA series. Hope you find it a bit interesting, at least.

Chapter 30. Revelations: Asuka Part II.

"What do you mean it could kill her?" Ranma asked, loudly, as he jumped to his feet.

"That's exactly what I mean. The only way we've thought of to destroy this angel is to drop N2 devices on it while containing the explosion with AT fields. Unfortunately, this will most likely destroy Unit 02 as well." Ritsuko said, in a neutral voice.

"You can't be serious?" Misato said, in disbelief.

Ritsuko nodded. "I'm sorry Misato, but it's the only way we've found to destroy the angel. We will hold off for a few hours though, as Asuka has some life support left and we may find another way before time runs out. There's nothing more we can do here so you may as well get going."

The other occupants of the room left it, leaving Ritsuko to stare at the diagram of the angel. 'I was trying to stop something like this…' She thought, before leaving the room.

HR

Asuka was sitting on the couch at Misato's place, watching television. "Huh? How did I get here?" She asked, looking around at her surroundings.

"Don't worry about that." Came a voice from next to her, causing her to turn and face it's owner. To her surprise, the voice belonged to someone who was an almost exact duplicate of herself.

"What the?" She asked, before jumping away. "Who the hell are you?"

The other girl laughed, but the voice seemed flat. "I'm you, of course." She answered, leaning back in her chair.

"What? No way!" Asuka objected. "You can't be me."

"There is more than one you, you know." The other Asuka said, still in that flat voice.

"At the risk of sounding like a broken record, what do you mean by that?" Asuka asked, angrily.

"I mean that there is more than one you. There's the you that Is a person, the you in Shinji Ikari's mind, the you in Rei Ayanami's mind and the you in Ranma Saotome's mind, not to mention so many other variations of you."

"You mean what they think of me? I don't care about that!" Asuka scoffed, getting into the rhythm of the conversation.

"Oh really?" The other Asuka asked, seeming to be smug. "What about Ryouji Kaji."

Asuka blushed. "K… Kaji's different!" She objected, loudly.

"how?" The other Asuka asked, simply. "Why did his date with Misato last night upset you so much?" As she said this, The two changed position to the front hall, seeing ghostly forms of Kaji and Misato walking through the door.

As Asuka watched the scene again, she felt tears coming to her eyes. "Stop that." She whispered, sniffing. "I don't want to remember that!"

The vision faded away, leaving the two of them on the couch again. "You don't like seeing your world fall apart. Seeing the people you love taken from you." The other Asuka said, as if considering a mathematical problem.

"Of course I don't you Dumbcof! Who would?" Asuka said, looking at the other person in disbelief.

"Then why do you always push them away?" The other Asuka asked, simply.

"But… I don't." Asuka said, hesitantly.

"Oh yes?" The other asked, before the world faded again.

Asuka stood on an aircraft carrier, looking at Ranma. "We can still be friends, even if I am better than you."

Asuka walked down the street with Shinji trying to out distance him even though the two were supposed to be walking in time.

Asuka just ignored Ranma and Rei after they came back from the seventh angel, too upset to speak.

Asuka kissed Shinji… and enjoyed it. She was so scared that she ran into the bathroom and began washing her mouth out with cold water, cursing herself for an idiot for doing it.

"Stop it! I get the point!" Asuka said, as these scenes also faded into the background.

"So why do you push them away?" The other asked, quizzically.

"I… I don't want to get hurt, Okay?" Asuka growled, glaring at the other who seemed to delight in making her admit what she didn't want to admit.. I don't want what happened to my mother to happen again.

"Your mother?" The other asked, seeming curious. "Oh, right. She went insane."

"Don't even think of showing me that!" Asuka yelled.

"As you wish…" The other said, with what may have been a bit of a smile.

HR

Meanwhile, in the real world, Ranma was staring from the top of a building at the Sea of Dirac. He had hopped the roofs of the nearby buildings to get out here, in order to sense the energy more clearly, as it seemed to be very familiar. Where the Angel's shadow had no aura, the sea had one. It wasn't a normal life aura, seeming somehow inverted, but it was there. It reminded him of something and it was on the edge of his mind, but he couldn't think of it. Thinking back to what Ritsuko had said earlier, he considered the words. "A sea of Dirac." Nope, don't know what that means. "Another Dimension." Then it clicked. Excited at his new discovery, Ranma began to run back towards the edge of the roof, heading for the safe edge of the sea of shadows.

HR

Meanwhile, on a road that bordered the sea of Dirac, Ritsuko and Misato were talking. "That solution of yours isn't much of a solution if you ask me." Misato grumbled, looking sourly at the blackness. "It'll probably kill Asuka."

"I'm sorry Misato, but the pilot's life is secondary in situations like this." Ritsuko said, only to get a very sceptical look from Misato.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" Misato asked, glaring at Ritsuko.

"Misato…" Ritsuko started, realizing that she had sounded a lot like Gendo there. "I know it sounds horrible but if we don't destroy this angel it could cause third impact and destroy EVERYONE. Asuka's life is a small price to pay."

Misato sighed. "I don't really agree with that, but I see your point." She said, before seeing something on the horizon. "Hey, what's that?" She asked, seeing a black dot bouncing from what was left of one building to another in the black void.

"I'm not sure…" Ritsuko said, shading her eyes so that the sun didn't reflect off of her glasses and then squinting. Suddenly, the small form began to grow and Ranma appeared, hopping onto the road next to them.

"Ranma? Don't do that!" Misato said, clutching her heart.

Ranma just looked at her strangely and shrugged before he turned to Ritsuko. "Dr. Akagi, can I borrow that clip board?" He asked, pointing to a small wooden board that she held in her hand.

"Uh… sure." Ritsuko said, tearing the paper she was writing on off and handing the board to Ranma. TO her surprise, Ranma held the board in his hands and began to concentrate. For a moment, his blue aura burst up around him and then the board vanished.

Ranma smirked. "I was wonderin if I could remember how to do that." He said and then frowned. "Mousse could do it a lot faster, though."

Ritsuko looked at Ranma and blinked a few times before asking, "Was there a reason you destroyed a perfectly good clip board?"

"I didn't destroy it." Ranma explained, concentrating again. As he did, the board appeared in his hands and he handed it back to Ritsuko. "That comment you made about the Dirac's whatever it is being like another dimension gave me an idea."

"Really? And how is this going to help us?" Misato asked, curiously.

"Well, I think…" Ranma started, as he began to concentrate again. "That I can rip a hole into the space that that sea thing is connected to. Just a second." As he said this, an aura began to grow around him and something appeared in his hands. It started out as a blue ball of light, and then expanded into a ring. The blue light was crackling around a black centre.

Ritsuko gaped in astonishment as she saw the hole in the middle of the air, but quickly took a phone out of her pocket. "This is Dr. Akagi to control. Can you detect EVA 02's power signature?"

From the other side, Maya's surprised voice responded. "Yes Ma'am. It just showed up a few minutes ago. I don't know where it came from but it's reading clear as day. Oh, wait a second. It just disappeared."

"What?" Ritsuko asked, before hearing Misato gasping. Turning, she saw Ranma passed out and being held in Misato's arms. The black and blue portal was nowhere to be seen. Ritsuko sighed, wondering what such a small portal could possibly do to help them.

HR

Back with Asuka, the other version of her was getting REALLY annoying. It kept asking questions, some of which she really didn't want to answer.

"What do you want to do in your future?" Her double asked, causing Asuka to tern to her.

"You know, You're getting really annoying." Asuka muttered, glaring at her. "To answer your question, I don't know. I just like piloting my Unit 02 for now, and if I stay stuck in this pit I'll probably be doing it when I die." The last bit came out as a quavering note.

With a grin, the other version of Asuka began sending her images, to see what her reaction was. A thirty year old Asuka piloting Unit 02 in a conventional war, The same woman looking after children while a man with glasses who looked a lot like that NERV technician, Hyuga, watched on, Asuka standing in a chapel and being married to Shinji. She shook her head. "That's never gunna happen." She laughed, leaning back. "Me marrying Backup."(1)

"I wonder if you are protesting too much. Remember, I know what you do." Saying this, the other sent images of Asuka smiling while listening to Shinji's Cello performance, along with a few of the kiss that the two had enjoyed.

"Okay, Okay. I get the idea. Jeas, you're so pushy." Asuka complained, shaking her head. "So maybe I like him a bit… Just a little… but he's nothing like Kaji." Her voice went dreamy at the last part.

"Who likes Misato." The other girl finished, smiling evilly.

"Would you get off of the topic of my love life all ready?" Asuka growled, trying to hit her duplicate with a fist that just passed through.

"as you wish. It is just that that is almost all you think about, aside from your Evangelion. Why do you insist that you be the only one to pilot it?"

"That's none of your business!" Asuka said, before turning away from her double and trying to ignore her. As she did so, she began to hear something.

"Asuka… Asuka, This is central Dogma. Can you hear us?" Came a voice, that was very scratchy and weak.

"Huh?" Asuka asked, as she woke from her sleep. "What's that?" As she heard the words repeated, she rapidly responded. "This is Asuka. How did you get in contact with me?"

"That isn't important right now." Came Misato's voice, still faint. "What matters is that we managed to contact you. In approximately twenty minutes, a portal will open in front of you. You MUST use it as quickly as possible, as Rei is going to send an N2 device in as you leave. This is VERY important, understood?"

"Y… Yes. I got it." Asuka said, things going slightly too fast for her sleep fogged mind.

HR

Back in the control room, Misato stood at a communication station and sighed in relief. "She says she understands." She reported, looking at Ranma. "You can stop that now."

Ranma let off a grateful sigh as he let the black portal fade and sank to the ground. His chi reserves just weren't strong enough to pull off the trick for too long, as the thing had to be surrounded by a ring of concentrated Chi to stay open. "Are you sure that My EVA'll have enough power to do this?" He asked, looking to Ritsuko.

"I hope so." The doctor said, looking out at the Angel's black body.

From nearby, Shinji watched, trying to ignore the feeling of worry in his stomach with the loud music that pumped through his walkman. It wasn't working very well, however.

HR

About twenty minutes later, Units 00 and 01 were standing at the edge of the Dirac's sea, getting ready to conduct the operation. As Ranma began to concentrate inside his EVA, he tried to get it's energy to go along with his. Seemingly responding to the urgency of the request, Unit 01 obliged and began to focus along with Ranma, even though it's mind was rather fragmented. As many people watched from a safe distance, a blue glow began to form in the air. It started to expand, slowly at first and then more quickly. "Now Asuka!" Ranma yelled, large amounts of strain in his voice, as the Portal became large enough for an EVA unit to crawl through. Just as he said this, Unit 02 shot through the hole, leaving a gap for Rei to throw the N2 grenade that she was holding through. As Ranma let the portal close, Unit 01 fell face first to the ground, as the angel seemed to pulse for a moment and then vaporise itself, along with the blocks of Tokyo 3 that it had sucked in.

HR

Asuka hit the ejection button on the control panel of her EVA, causing the plug to come shooting out. "Man, I'm glad I got out of there." She said, as the LCL was starting to get sort of cloudy. Climbing out of the plug, she saw Ranma being wheeled away from Unit 01's fallen form on a stretcher, Rei's unit 00 still in the position it was in when she threw the mine. Walking over, she looked at Ranma, who seemed to have no visible injuries. "Is the Engelkind all right?" She asked, looking to Ritsuko who had run over to check him over.

"yes, as far as I can see." Ritsuko said, looking at one of the portable instruments that was hooked to the stretcher. "He just has an extreme case of exhaustion."

I see." Asuka said, before walking off to get her plug suit off and back into normal clothes.

HR

As Asuka exited the changing room, she saw Shinji standing there. "Hi Asuka, how are you feeling?" He asked, tentatively.

Asuka stopped for a moment, just about to deliver some sarcastic remark, before she reconsidered. "I'm fine Shinji. Let's get home, okay?"

Shinji nodded and the two children walked down the hall towards the exit of the NERV complex.

END.

(1) Ten bonus points for whoever can tell me why I threw in that scene with Asuka and Hyuga. No, I wasn't being perverted. There's a reason for it.

One last thing to say. Weebee on a role! YEH!

* * *

**Chapter 31: Chapter 31 The Fourth Child**

* * *

Notes: as Materia blade has said, I am not too good at rendering emotion. I'm sorry about that, and I really should stick with action fics, but most of my plots tend to be really long like this and action fics are really boring when they get to this length. Oh, and to that anonymous flamer, No. I believe that a jackass who snipes at a writer without giving him a chance to reply and ask questions about the flame is the one who is truly lacking in intelligence. Dry up and die.

Chapter 31, the fourth child.

The woman stood in the darkness, a single spot light shining down on her form. "So, can you tell us what we wish to know this time?" Keel asked, gruffly.

She sighed. "If it's about the last angel, yes. Pilot Saotome was capable of creating a tear into the subspace that the angel used as it's body, although it took a large deal of his energy."

"And what of the speculation that the second child communicated with the angel?" The high voiced German SEELE member asked, causing the woman to frown.

"I do not know about that. The entry plug cameras were off line to save power while the second child was inside the angel." The woman said, stiffly.

"Is there any news on… other fronts?" Keel asked, slowly.

The woman sighed. "Yes. Major Katsuragi and Mr. Kaji discovered the second angel underneath NERV. The Magi record their accessing it as of last week."

"I see…" Keel said, and then seemed to make a decision. "You may go."

"Thank you sir." The woman said, leaving the room.

"So what do you think of what she has said?" Keel asked, as all of the SEELE monoliths faded into view.

"I think we should get rid of those two meddlers." SEELE eight said, loudly.

"No. That would tip our hand to Gendo." SEELE two countered, and the group began debating among themselves.

HR

At NERV, later that day, Rei Ayanami rode up an escalator, Gendo Ikari standing across from her. "How are you doing, Rei?" Gendo asked, in a flat and calm voice.

"I am well Ikari san." Rei responded, looking up to the top of the escalator, where the other three children were riding.

"Oh, how's school?" Gendo asked, noticing where she was looking.

"School is going well, and My training in the martial arts is proceeding as well." Rei said, before looking at Gendo questioningly. "If I may ask, why are you asking me about this sir?"

"Can't I ask about the health of my EVA pilots?" Gendo asked, surprised.

Rei, who while not nearly as prone to foot in mouth disease as Ranma, still was far too blunt, spoke. "Sir, I would have thought you would be more concerned about your son."

"Yes… I suppose you would think that." Gendo said, looking away from the girl as the escalator reached the top of it's run.

"I will see you later, sir." Rei said, walking off to join the other children.

"Good bye Rei." Gendo responded, looking after her.

"Hey Rei!" Ranma called, as he saw the blue haired girl coming towards the group of EVA pilots. This caused the other two to turn towards her as well.

"Hello Everyone." Rei said, joining the group.

"So what'd the boss want?" Ranma asked, as they continued towards the exit to the complex, having just come from a series of tests to make sure Asuka was all right after the last angel incident.

"He wished to ask me how I was doing." Rei said, shrugging. For some reason, Shinji looked down slightly at this. Asuka noticed, but decided to save her comments for later.

HR

Later that day, Central Dogma was reasonably peaceful. There were no active readings on the radar and most technicians were just leaning back and relaxing. Suddenly, Maya's console began to beep franticly and she leaned forward, typing in a request for information. "Oh my god." She said, in an awed voice.

"What is it Maya?" Aoba asked, leaning over from his seat."

"It's NERV second branch in the United states. The satellites say it just vanished." Maya reported, staring in disbelief at her readings.

"Should we call the senior staff about this?" Hyuga asked, hearing what Maya had said.

"Probably." Aoba said, before picking up the phone next to his station and dialling rapidly.

HR

"What?" Misato yelled, from the kitchen of her apartment. "Yes… Yes… All right. I'll be right down. See you in a few minutes."

"What was that?" Shinji asked, from his position at the kitchen table doing homework.

"Nothing you need to worry about Shinji, at least as far as I know. I'll be at NERV Headquarters for a bit. Tell Asuka when she gets out of the shower, all right?" Misato said, as she ran around franticly getting her coat and I.D. badge.

"OK Misato." Shinji said, looking after the speeding woman in confusion as she left the room.

"What was that Shinji?" Asuka asked, as she poked her head out from around the corner, the top of it covered with a towel. "I heard Misato shouting."

"You got me." Shinji said, shrugging. "She said it didn't concern us and ran off to headquarters. She seemed really panicked, though."

"Strange." Asuka muttered, before her head disappeared back around the corner. A few minutes later, a fully dressed Asuka came out into the kitchen and plopped down at the table across from Shinji. "So, what're you doing?" She asked, leaning over to look at his work.

"Pre-second impact history." Shinji explained, turning his book slightly so that she could see it.

"I was pretty good at that. You want help?" Asuka asked, sliding up next to him.

"Sure I guess… but can I ask you a question?" Shinji asked, looking at Asuka suspiciously.

"Yeh, shoot." She responded, reading over the answers he had already given.

"Why are you being so nice to me? I mean you act just the same towards Ranma and Rei, but you really started acting differently around me since that last angel attack." Shinji asked, in a rush so that he could get the whole question out before Asuka blew up at him.

"So it's that noticeable, huh?" She asked, shaking her head slowly. "Let's just say that angel showed me some stuff I didn't like, Okay?"

"Okay I guess." Shinji said, confused but deciding that not getting yelled at for a question like that was a good thing and that he shouldn't push his luck.

After a long silence, Asuka finally spoke up. "Now that I've answered a question, it's time for you to. So what got you so upset about Rei's comment earlier?"

Shinji looked at her, startled, and then sighed. "Well, It's just that my father seems to ignore me most of the time. I guess it kinda bugs me that he took the time to stop and talk to Rei when he never gives me the time of day."

"Oh." Asuka said, wincing. She hadn't meant to touch such a soar spot in someone else. She kind of understood where Shinji was coming from, too. After all, her mother had ignored her for a doll for a few years. Trying to shake of those painful memories, Asuka threw herself into helping Shinji with his work.

HR

An apartment away, Ranma and Rei were talking about the days to come. "So we go back to school tomorrow?" Ranma asked, taking a bite out of a chip from a bag near his feet.

"You do." Rei said, shaking her head. "Dr. Akagi wishes to perform some tests on me tomorrow."

"Tests?" Ranma asked, alarmed. "Are you going to be Okay?"

"I will be fine." Rei said, shrugging. "I have had tests like these before, and nothing really happened. It is part of the Dummy plug program I told you about."

Ranma narrowed his eyes. "I see." He muttered, slightly angrily.

"Ranma, I know you don't like what they are doing but it is what saved my life before." Rei said, putting a hand on Ranma's shoulder.

He sighed. "I know Rei. It just bothers me that they use you like that. It just seems so… Wrong, somehow."

"It is necessary." Rei said, simply. Ranma just nodded, very grudgingly, before the conversation ended.

HR

At NERV Headquarters, Misato, Ritsuko, Gendo and Fuyutsuki stood around a large screen that showed a portion of the mid-western united states. As they watched, a large circular region suddenly became nothing but bare earth.

"What in the world could do that?" Misato said, looking at the devastation.

"We aren't sure." Ritsuko said, shrugging. "All we really know is that they were testing a super solenoid engine there when it just suddenly blew up in their faces."

"I see." Gendo said, calmly. "How does this effect us?"

"Well, any support from the U.S. Second branch is gone now and they want to get Unit 03 off their soil as quickly as possible. They see it as a hot potato." Ritsuko explained, pointing at another section of the map where "NERV First Branch" was written in white lettering.

"So we get another EVA unit?" Misato asked, questioningly. "It would help a lot, but who pilots it?"

"Shinji, of course." Gendo said, authoritatively.

"But sir, Shinji has made it very clear that he hates piloting Evangelions and only pilots Unit 01 reluctantly." Misato objected, concernedly.

"I know major, but the fourth child HAS seen combat before in an Evangelion and is probably the best choice for the job. Gendo said, deadpan.

"You heartless bastard. You don't even care what he wants, do you?" Misato asked, angrily.

"major Katsuragi!" Ritsuko said, shutting her up. "Those were the commander's orders."

Misato sighed in exasperation. "Yes, sir." She said, before leaving the room. Ritsuko followed, leaving the two older men alone.

"Gendo, are you sure you wish to do this?" Fuyutsuki asked, concerned.

"Yes old friend. I have to." Gendo said, sighing. "If it gives humanity just a bit more of a chance against the angels, we have to do what we can.

Fuyutsuki nodded solemnly before leaving the room himself, leaving Gendo to look into the pockmarked map of the United States and finally let his expression brake into a look of sad regret.

HR

The next day, Ranma was sitting at lunch, missing the usual presence of Rei next to him and eating calmly when Kensuke ran up with his video camera in hand. "Ranma, I have something to ask you!" He said, quickly.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking up to see the other boy's camera in his face.

"Do you know anything about the disappearance of the NERV facility in Nevada?" Kensuke asked, excitedly.

"NERV facility in Nevada? No. Why?" Ranma asked, blinking in confusion.

"You mean you don't know anything?" Kensuke asked, looking down in disappointment.

"No, now you going to tell me what's going on?" Ranma asked, exasperated.

"My father says that the American NERV second branch was blown up or something yesterday." Kensuke explained. "I figured you would know about it and I can't find Shinji anywhere to ask. Asking Asuka would just be stupid."

Ranma shrugged. "Sorry. I have no idea." He said, before Kensuke ran off to try and find Shinji again. Too bad that Ranma forgot to tell him that Shinji wasn't around, apparently having gone to NERV for something.

HR

"You're assigning me my own EVA?" Shinji asked, shocked from what he had just heard.

"Yep." Misato said, pointing at a picture of EVA 03, standing in the middle of a hanger at it's American home base.

"But why?" Shinji asked, confused. "You know I'm only a backup pilot."

"It's commander Ikari's orders." Misato explained, shrugging. "He said that you already had combat experience and we shouldn't waist the opportunity."

"Figures…" Shinji muttered, looking to the floor of Misato's office.

"Look Shinji." Misato said, coming around her desk to stand in front of the boy. "Your father is right. We do need all of the EVAs and experienced pilots we can get, and you're one of them."

"I know that but…" Shinji started, before being interrupted.

"The other pilots will be out there with you, looking out for your safety. You don't have anything to worry about."

"Yeh… I guess you're right." Shinji said, slumping his shoulders.

"That's the spirit!" Misato said, clapping him on the shoulder. "We'll be leaving at ten tomorrow morning."

"Yes Ma'am." Shinji said, turning and leaving the room, not exactly looking enthusiastic.

'Damn it Gendo. Why'd you leave it to me to tell him?' Misato asked, walking back to her chair and slumping down in it. Violating one of her taboos, not to mention NERV regulations, Misato pulled a can of beer out of her desk and popped the lid, drinking some of it's contents.

HR

As Ranma walked home from school that day, he saw Shinji sitting on a wall near the apartment building, tossing pebbles into a puddle in the street. "Y'know that works better with a lake or somethin." Ranma said, hopping up on the wall next to him.

"Oh, Hi Ranma." Shinji said, picking another pebble off of the top of the wall and flicking it. There were obvious traces of depression in his voice, but Ranma couldn't figure out why.

"Shinji, what's wrong? Something go wrong when ya went to NERV today?" He asked, looking with concern at the other boy. Although it was rather muted when Shinji wasn't in dangerous situations, Ranma had a strange urge to protect the young Ikari, almost like that which he had to protect his family. Dismissing these thoughts, he waited for Shinji's answer.

"I guess you could say something went wrong." Shinji said, shrugging. "Misato told me that I was going to receive my own EVA unit."

"What?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Where're they getting an EVA for you?"

Shinji shrugged. "I heard it's coming from America. Some sort of big explosion over there caused them to want to get rid of it."

"Lemme get this straight. We're takin an EVA from the Americans because they're afraid it's gunna blow up?" Ranma asked, incredulously.

"I… guess." Shinji said, uncomfortably. He hadn't thought of it like that before. "I just don't know about piloting this new EVA. I mean, I don't even really like piloting unit 01, and you said she likes me. What if this new EVA decides I'm it's worst enemy or something?"

"I doubt it'll do that." Ranma said, contemplatively. "Besides. Rei's EVA seems to really hate everyone, and it still does what she tells it to. I wonder what someone did to that thing to get it so angry. Don't worry Shinji, you'll do fine."

"I hope so…" Shinji muttered, as he hopped off of the fence. "I'd better get going. I saw Asuka pass by a few minutes ago and she's probably waiting for me."

"All right. See ya tomorrow, right?" Ranma asked, as the other boy walked off.

"Yeh, see you tomorrow." Shinji said, waving back.

As Shinji left, Ranma realized that Rei was probably out of NERV by now and began heading there to meet her.

HR

That night, a transport plane flew over the ocean to Japan, passing through what looked like an innocent cloud burst. A large mecha hung from the bottom of the aircraft, and unknown to it's pilots, something malevolent worked it's way into the Mecha's body and became dormant, waiting for the right time to awaken and destroy.

END

Notes.

No one tried to solve my little puzzle! All right. Fine. I'll tell you the answer. The ADV director of EVA's English sound track, who co-incidentally also plays the bit part of Hyuga, is now, and has been for about five years, married to the English voice actress for Asuka Langley.

* * *

**Chapter 32: Chapter 32 A Father's Betrayal**

* * *

Chapter 32. A father's betrayal.

Deep in the centre of NERV, Commander Ikari walked through a poorly lit hall, Ritsuko Akagi walking next to him. "So, how goes the Dummy system?" He asked, as the two emerged to see the room where the clones of Rei were kept.

"It's going well, as far as I can tell." Ritsuko said, gazing at the empty tube in the middle of the room where she had made a backup copy of the memories of Rei Ayanami the day before. "I still wouldn't trust it to pilot an EVA by itself, though. It has a tendency to take the path of least resistance, to hell with the collateral damage."

"I see." Gendo said, looking vaguely displeased.

"Were you hoping to use a dummy plug in unit 03 in stead of Shinji, sir?" Ritsuko asked, curiously.

"That was what I was considering Doctor." Gendo said, frowning at the single completed dummy unit that hung in the room. "Can you have this installed in one of the EVA units for testing?"

"Yes, I suppose." Ritsuko said, hesitantly. "Have it placed into Unit 01, just in case." Gendo said, before turning around and walking out of the room.

Ritsuko looked after Gendo, wondering what he was doing. She had given up on following in her mother's footsteps and attempting to be with the man more than a year ago, but she was slightly worried about his mental health, especially when it came to his reactions to his son and his wife's death. As other troubling thoughts plagued her mind, she took a cellular phone from her pocket and began making calls to have the dummy plug implanted in Unit 01's neck.

HR

At school that morning, Ranma, Rei and Asuka sat together at lunch. Shinji wasn't there again, and the three all knew why. "Do ya think he's gotten to the test site yet?" Ranma asked, nibbling on some sushi.

"I would assume so. It has been long enough for his transportation to get there. " Rei responded, looking uncertain.

"I hope he's all right…" Asuka said, looking worried.

Ranma pretended to gasp and looked at Asuka in shock. "Is ASUKA concerned about Shinji? Rei, has third impact come and we just don't know it?"

Rei laughed while Asuka fumed.

As the three continued eating their lunches, Kensuke ran up again, Touji nowhere in sight. "Ranma, Asuka, Rei. You gotta help me!" He begged, skidding to a stop on his knees, looking up at them. This was an impressive feet, since they were all sitting down.

"What's wrong Kensuke?" Ranma asked, concerned.

"I heard that they're sending Unit 03 here from america. You've GOTA get me on the list to pilot it. Please?" Kensuke begged, clasping his hands in front of his face.

"How did he find out about that?" Asuka muttered, looking strangely at the military Otaku.

"Beats me." Ranma said, shrugging. "His father probably told him. Dai ain't too good about keeping his mouth shut about secrets."

"I'm sorry Kensuke san, but a pilot has already been chosen for Unit 03." Rei said, not being involved in the last conversation.

"What?" Kensuke asked, outraged. "I bet it was Touji, wasn't it? I haven't seen him at lunch for the last three days. Grr, that traitor!"

In the children's classroom, Touji sneezed.

"Are you feeling well, Touji?" Hikari asked, passing him a tissue.

"Yeh, I'm fine. Thanks for this great lunch by the way." Touji said, grinning up at the class rep who was standing next to his desk.

Hikari blushed. "It's no problem. I always make way too much food so you can eat as much as you want!"

Touji just nodded enthusiastically and dug into his food.

Back at the schoolyard, Ranma shook his head. "Sorry Kensuke. It wasn't Touji. Shinji's been assigned to unit 03."

"WHAT!" Kensuke yelled, and then his whole body slumped to the ground. "It just isn't fair…" He whimpered, starting to cry.

"Is… he all right?" Asuka asked, looking at the sobbing boy in a mixture of disgust, idle curiosity and concern.

"Yeh, He's fine. He did that when you blew up all those ships too, remember?" Ranma asked, referring to the incident with the second fleet.

"Oh yeh." Asuka said, as Kensuke staggered off, trying to look as pitiful as he could.

HR

At the NERV testing grounds, far from Tokyo 3, Misato and Ritsuko looked around the field control room. "I really wish my crew was here." Ritsuko muttered, seeing the rather large group of Japanese second branch NERV crew.

"Well, we can't really complain." Misato said, shrugging. "We do have the EVA now."

Ritsuko nodded, before walking up to the local lead computer technician, this base's equivalent to herself, though very much lower ranked. Misato noted idly that the woman was wearing a red uniform tunic in stead of the usual grey before turning to Shinji. "So are you ready for this Shinji?" She asked, as the two looked out of the large windows in the front of the room at the jet black form of EVA 03.

"I hope so." Shinji said, uncertainly, as he fingered the white part of the front of his plug suit, an action that Misato had learned meant he was very nervous.

"Don't worry Shinji. Everything will be fine." Misato said, as she lead the boy to an elevator that would take him to the entry plug of his new Evangelion.

HR

Ten minutes later, Shinji was sitting in the entry plug of unit 03. It felt slightly different from unit 01's plug, as if it was constructed slightly differently. "All right Misato. I'm ready to start the test." He said, as he reached forward and gripped the handles for the manipulator arms.

"That's good to hear." Misato said, as she looked to one side in order to signal to Ritsuko. "We'll go slow, all right? Dr. Akagi says that this EVA should feel slightly different from Unit 01, since the core wasn't custom designed for you. It should adapt to you in time, but the EVA will probably handle sluggishly for a bit."

"All right." Shinji answered, feeling slightly nervous at this proclamation.

"Here we go. Begin EVA 03 power on." Misato said, as the entry plug lit up.

Deep inside the EVA, it's red core began to pulse with power as it was fed from an outside source. The EVA's mind woke, relishing the feeling of being awake again, even if it was in it's new metallic prison of a body. Unlike most of the minds of the EVA units, 03's originator was reasonably good at meditation and centering techniques, having been a martial artist. As a result of this, the EVA kept a semblance of consciousness and sentience, unlike the others. As it wondered what was going to happen today, it felt something inside of it. Another mind, seemingly trying to connect with it's own. Was this a way to communicate? After all this time? Unit 03 reached out to see who wanted to connect with it, only to crash into a mental wall that it's under-exercised mind couldn't pass through. One thing it knew was that the mind on the other side of the barrier was like it's own, so much like it's own, and it so desperately wanted to interact with it! As Unit 03 withdrew into itself in disappointment, a second presence in the mecha flared to life. This was the being that had blocked Unit 03's own awakening, and it now forced itself into control in stead. As the Evangelion was charged to full power, the thirteenth angel awoke.

HR

"What the hell's going on?" Ritsuko asked, as several panels began to flash warning messages. "I… I don't know." Someone stammered, before being shoved out of the way.

"What is it, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, noticing that the EVA was moving now, and apparently letting off a field of energy.

"Oh shit." Ritsuko muttered, as she read the sensor data on her screen. "We've got an angel, and it's inside the…" Just as she began to say that, the EVA let off a large concussion wave, causing the whole area to disappear in a flash of blinding light. Two forms, through some sort of strange luck, were thrown clear of the explosion before the whole external section of NERV's second branch blew itself to bits.

HR

Back at NERV HQ, Maya Ibuki's panel began to franticly beep again, similar to what had happened two days before. Looking at it, she cursed. "What the hell is going on here?" She muttered, studying the readings. "NERV Second branch Japan was just blown up by a huge energy discharge!"

"What?" Fuyutsuki, who was on duty at the time, demanded, leaning forward in his chair. "What's the status on Unit 03 and the fourth child?"

"Checking now sir." Hyuga said, working as quickly as he could in order to get a satellite image of the area. "Got it. Unit 03 is fine, but it appears to be walking without an umbilical cable. It's reserve battery hasn't been put in yet, sir."

Maya quickly got a spectral analysis of the area and said, "Unit 03 is registering as an angel. It's headed right for Tokyo 3!"

"I See. Call in the Evangelion pilots and Commander Ikari." Fuyutsuki said, as he stood up from his seat and walked further into the mass of consoles, giving orders for conventional military force to be deployed.

HR

As Ranma, who was female due to a rogue sprinkler, Asuka, and Rei walked down the street leading back to the apartment building after school, their cell phones rang at the same time. Exchanging glances, the three Evangelion pilots knew what this meant, and Ranma reached into her pocket for her heavily waterproofed phone. "Hello? Yeh, this is Ranma. Right. I got it. We'll be right there." She said, clicking the device closed.

"What is it Engelkind?" Asuka asked, curiously.

"Angel attack." Ranma said, before grabbing Rei in her arms. "Sorry Asuka, but I can only do this with one passenger." Saying this, She hopped into the air and to the nearest roof, running towards NERV HQ as quickly as she could.

Asuka just muttered curses under her breath as she ran to catch a taxi or something to get to NERV as quickly as she could.

HR

About twenty minutes later, Units 01 and 00 were positioned in strategic spots in Tokyo 3, waiting for Unit 02 to join them. "So what's this angel look like?" Ranma asked, wondering what she was supposed to look out for.

"The thirteenth angel is Unit 03." Gendo's voice said, through the headsets of both EVAs that were currently on the field.

"What?" Ranma asked, surprised. But isn't Shinji in that thing?"

"Yes, he is but the fact remains that it is your enemy." Gendo said, calmly. As he said this, a black form began to appear a long distance away from the city, finally coming into sight. Just as it showed up, Asuka's EVA popped up very close to it.

"What the hell? Isn't that an EVA?" Asuka asked, freezing like a dear in headlights as she saw her target.

"That is your enemy, now attack!" Gendo barked, angrily.

"All right!" Asuka said, overcoming her shock in order to pull a weapon from a nearby cache and hold it up, firing at the EVA turned Angel.

Inside Unit 03, Shinji could see and hear everything, but couldn't communicate back. He heard his father's orders to attack him and they really hurt, but he knew that he was now the enemy. As Asuka's shots bounced off of his AT field and the EVA's impossibly long arms stretched out to punch the redhead into a wall, Shinji winced in sympathy. When the Unit then back handed Unit 02 so that it stopped moving, tears came to his eyes.

Rei looked on in shock as Unit 02 was disposed of, the rogue Evangelion being faster and stronger than any other angel she had seen in the past. This convinced her of the necessity of attacking it, causing her to pull out a machine gun and begin firing. Unfortunately, this did little good, as the angel seemed to be using the EVA's own AT field to supplement it's own and Rei's shots just bounced off. As she watched in horror, the Angel thrust out a spiked hand and imbedded it into her left arm.

In central Dogma, Maya spoke up. "Eva 00's left arm is being contaminated by the angel!"

"Damn…" Gendo cursed, angrily. "Cut it off!"

"Cut it off sir?" Maya asked, worried. "But Pilot Ayanami's nerve links are still active!"

"I said cut it off!" Gendo barked, and Maya reluctantly went to obey.

HR

On the battle field, Rei's EVA's left arm seemed to fall away from her body, just as she let off an ear piercing scream and fell to the ground.

Ranma winced, knowing what severe physical damage felt like in an Evangelion, and charged towards Unit 03, wanting revenge. She dodged the lashing arms of the rogue Evangelion, barely avoiding a blow that would have slammed her into a nearby mountain side. As she was about to slam her fist into the front of the EVA, she stopped cold. 'Wait, that's Shinji in there…' She thought, finding herself unable to move forward from a combination of her own reluctance to attack the boy and the EVA's strong will not to hurt what it perceived as it's son. Unit 03 used Ranma's sudden stop to it's advantage, using it's body to body check the Martial artist and EVA pilot into the ground.

Ranma groaned as she tried to force his EVA to it's feet, only to have the angel punch her and force her back to her laying position. She knew that she couldn't attack the angel again. Shinji was in there, and EVA 01 couldn't seem to get over that fact in order to realize that the Rogue EVA was going to kill it. Truthfully, she was having a little trouble with that herself, but years as a martial artist helped her overcome it.

HR

Back in the control room, Gendo looked on as a possessed unit 03 battered at Unit 01, causing it's chest armour to begin to buckle. He knew that if he didn't do something soon, He would lose Unit 01 and the Geofront.

HR

On the battlefield, Ranma finally came up with a battle plan that Unit 01 would probably follow. As she was about to execute it, Gendo's voice came over her comm link. "Activate the dummy system!"

"What?" Ranma asked, as her EVA's cockpit turned a dim red and several graphs began to flash. "Boss, what are you doing? I have a way to stop it!"

"Pilot Saotome, you've had your chance. Dummy plug, initiate attack pattern." From Gendo's voice command, the dummy system began sending images of what it planned to do through EVA 01, and co-incidentally, Ranma.

"No WAY IN HELL!" Ranma yelled, as the EVA itself bucked and struggled against the control impulses that ran through it's body. As the NERV control team watched in horror, EVA unit 01's protective neck brace came shooting off, followed by the dummy plug which smashed into the ground below with such force that it was compacted into scrap metal.

"What the hell is going on?" Gendo barked, as he watched this scene.

"It… It's EVA 01 sir." Hyuga stammered, gaping. It's overwhelmed the dummy plug and forcibly expelled it. Pilot Saotome is back in control!"

"Damn it!" Gendo said, but the curse wasn't as heart felt as it should have been.

As Ranma felt her EVA return to her own control, she began putting her plan into action. Struggling up to her feet, She forced the possessed EVA backwards until she was fully upright. Ripping one of her arms out of the other machine's grasp, she reached around it's back, clawing at it's own neck protector. Ripping it off, she pulled the entry plug loose as gently as she could and the enemy stopped moving. Ranma sighed in relief as she held the freed entry plug in unit 01's hand, carefully setting it on the ground.

END.

Notes: Enjoy. All I have to say for this one.

* * *

**Chapter 33: Chapter 33 The Awakening**

* * *

Chapter 33. The awakening.

As the NERV crew watched in stunned silence, Ranma set Shinji's plug on the ground and the Angel stopped moving. Unnoticed by everyone else, Gendo Ikari wore a small smile.

"I think that did it. Angel neutralized." Ranma said, sighing in relief. Turning around, she began to walk to the nearest recovery lift.

The thirteenth angel was angry. That creation of the Lilum had managed to stop it's advance, and what was worse, it had done it by pulling out a single tiny plug? Knowing that the body of EVA 03 was useless to it now, the angel forced it's way out of the machine's armour, leaving a rather large hole in it's chest.

"Ranma, watch out?" Rei said, from her position on the ground near the battle. Ranma turned to see what Rei was warning her about, only to get a stabbing and burning pain in her chest and right shoulder.

"What?" Ranma asked, seeing a semi-formless mass that had apparently come from Unit 03. "What the hell are you?"

As she got back into a fighting posture, the thirteenth angel reformed into an extremely rough approximation of a humanoid form and attacked. Ranma blocked with her AT field and looked for the angel's core. "I shoulda known it wouldn't be that easy!" She said, reprimanding herself as she was pushed back by the attacks, both combatants barely missing the entry plug that contained Shinji, who was just opening the hatch.

Seeing the battle that was raging above his head, Shinji jumped from the entry plug and began running towards the nearest safety he could find, the prone body of Unit 03.

Nearby, Ranma cursed as she felt the Angel raking a set of claws that it had formed along her side, knowing that she was in trouble. She had expended most of her energy in defending herself from the possessed unit 03 and the angel seemed to be at full strength. Just as she was beginning to fail in her defence, the enemy angel convulsed and began to disintegrate, revealing the single armed form of Unit 00, with it's progressive knife stuck through a throbbing red core that had been on the angel's back.

"Thanks Rei. That was a close one." Ranma said, sighing in relief.

"It was no problem. I was just lucky that those pain suppression techniques you taught me worked in an Evangelion." Rei said, offering Unit 01 a hand up from where the angels last attack had knocked it to the ground. Ranma accepted, and the two EVA units retrieved unit 02 and headed back to the nearest recovery lift.

HR

As Ranma staggered out of Unit 01, scratches littering her form and a large cut along her right shoulder, she was surprised to see a group of NERV soldiers waiting for her. "What's goin on?" She asked, looking from one side to the other.

"We have been ordered to take you to commander Ikari." One soldier said, seeming to wince at the words as he saw the rather badly wounded EVA pilot. "He wanted to speak to you."

Ranma contemplated resisting, but she simply didn't have the energy to do it anymore. "All right. Sorry, but yer gunna have to carry me for a bit, though."

The soldiers blinked as Ranma keeled over and the leader automatically caught her. Shrugging, he began carrying the body towards Gendo's office, not noticing that it was healing itself as it went. Ever since Ranma's angelic abilities had been awakened, her healing ability had become even faster, due to the fact that her body was technically just an assumed form. Because of this fact, the new material that had been incorporated from Unit 01 during this battle also began to take it's place immediately, causing Ranma's face to thin slightly and her red hair to darken until it took on a brownish red tone. About three quarters of the way to the office, Ranma asked to be put down again and walked the rest of the way, although she was still very tired from the battle.

"Wadda ya want, Commander?" Ranma asked, glaring at Gendo, who sat behind his desk in his rather large office.

"I want to ask you why you destroyed the Dummy plug, and how you did it. That was a VERY important piece of hardware." Gendo responded, slightly angrily.

Ranma, who had seemed to just be tired and wounded before, suddenly became very angry. "You bastard." She said, as she walked towards his desk. "Gendo, I've got a news flash for you. That damned plug was going to KILL Shinji. Do you know what it wanted to do?"

Gendo shook his head, slightly shaken at the fact that Ranma had called him by the first name and was glaring at him like he was the most filthy insect she had ever seen.

"The dummy plug wanted to break unit 03's neck, extract the entry plug and CRUSH it. not only would breaking the machine's neck while Shinji was inside probably cause immense amounts of pain, but he would probably have died when the entry plug was crushed. I TOLD YOU that I had a way to stop the EVA but you activated the damned thing anyways and almost killed our son!" Ranma didn't seem to notice her slip as she continued to rant. "Gendo, I used to think you were just a bad father. I had one of those myself but I still loved the guy and grieved when he died. Now I guess I know the truth. You're a heartless bastard. You're lucky you aren't a martial artist or I'd KILL you for what you've done to Shinji and the rest of us." Her hands twitching as if she wanted to snap Gendo's neck, Ranma turned and marched out of the office, leaving the man sitting in his chair, stunned.

Gendo replayed the conversation with Ranma in his mind several times, realizing something. The young pilot had been right. He had seen this coming when Naoko Akagi had died by jumping off of the top level of the command deck so many years ago, but he had tried to ignore it, thinking that if he could bring Yui back and fulfil NERV's mission everything would be Okay. Now, however, he was having his doubts. A person who, as far as he could tell, was slowly becoming Yui, had just shown him exactly what he was becoming. What have I done?' Gendo thought, as he slumped at his desk and buried his head in his hands, almost starting to cry. A few minutes later, he heard his office door open and a hesitant voice call to him. "…Father?"

HR

Shinji looked on nervously as Ranma came stomping out of his father's office, something about her female form seeming slightly different from before. She was also producing a battle aura, which was something he had very rarely seen. Thinking that this may be a bad time, he almost turned around to leave. Remembering what had happened earlier stiffened his resolve though, and he opened his father's office door to see the man holding his head in his hands.

"… Father?" Shinji asked, slowly entering.

"Yes Shinji, what is it?" Gendo asked, in a voice that seemed all too tired. Shinji could see that the older man must have been through the ringer recently, and probably from Ranma, judging from her behaviour when she had left.

"I wanted to ask to be taken off of the pilots list." Shinji said, hesitantly. "I don't think I can do this, father. If it means you tell me to leave again then I'll do it, just don't make me pilot those things again."

Gendo looked at Shinji, who had a determined look on his face. "No Shinji. I'll take you off of the list, and I know that you have friends here. You will stay at Major Katsuragi's home, a guest of NERV."

"Really?" Shinji asked, surprised. He hadn't expected things to go this well. "You…" He was hesitant. "You aren't disappointed in me?"

"Shinji, I just learned that there are more important things than my desires. It may take me a while to understand it, but I…" Gendo started, hesitantly. "I will try to be your father again, Shinji. Even if it is too late."

Shinji was very confused by this statement, but let it go as he left the room. "Good bye, father." He said, as he closed the door. After Shinji had left, Gendo began to make a few phone calls.

HR

Meanwhile, at the NERV testing grounds, Misato Katsuragi was opening her eyes, wincing at the light that assaulted her senses. "Ngh.. what's goin on?" She asked, too tired to make coherent sentences. Trying to sit up, she was gently restrained by what felt like a man's hand.

"Don't get up too fast, Misato." Came a familiar male voice, that caused her to look around in order to find it's source.

"Kaji?" She asked, blinking up at the man.

"Yep, it's me. You sure got yourself in one heck of a mess this time." Kaji said, as he looked around the devastated area.

As Misato followed his gaze, a look of panic appeared on her face. "Oh no. Where's Shinji?" She asked, worriedly.

"Shinji's fine." Kaji said, reassuringly. "Unit 03 was stopped by the other Evangelions and Shinji was rescued."

"I see." Misato said, her worries set aside for the moment. "I think I'm gunna go to sleep now." After this, her head slumped limply to the pillow on the stretcher she was laying on.

HR

The next morning, Ranma woke up and went to get his morning bath as usual, splashing his face with water and waking herself up before entering the tub. Looking up into the mirror, she finally noticed the changes that had been made the night before. "What the hell?" She asked, noticing that her face had changed shape slightly and her hair had become a light auburn in stead of it's usual bright red. "Man, I look a lot like mom, only younger." She thought, with a grin. Trying to think of herself wearing a formal Kimono turned the grin into a soft chuckle, as she sank into the water and regained her male form. As he relaxed, he heard a now very familiar sound. Rei had just opened the bathroom door and hung up her clothes, and was now walking to the tub. He had gotten used to the girl's penchant for joining him in the bath in the morning, and decided that it couldn't really hurt anything. She had a point that he had seen everything she had before, and they had gone out a few times, after all.

As Ranma Noticed that Rei was taking a long time to enter the bath, he looked over to see her wrapping her left arm in a bandage at the shoulder. "Rei? What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

"I appear to have suffered a sympathetic injury similar to the ones you and Unit 01 share. Fortunately, it was not nearly as severe or I would have lost an arm." She responded, raising the gauze for a moment to reveal a shallow cut extending all the way around her arm.

"That's gotta hurt." Ranma muttered, wincing in sympathy. "Do you want to call off our sparring match this afternoon?"

"I believe that would be a good idea." Rei said, wincing as she flexed the shoulder. Sinking into the bath, she made sure that she didn't get that arm wet.

HR

Later that morning, Ranma and Rei were walking with Shinji and Asuka, both of whom looked rather down. Finally, having had enough of the depressive atmosphere, Ranma spoke up. "Guys, what's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

"Nothing." Asuka grumbled, just slightly upset at having been beaten so easily by the last angel.

Shinji sighed. "I'm not an EVA pilot anymore." He responded, slowly.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused. "I thought that would be a good thing. Don't you hate piloting?"

"Yes, but it's all I've really been doing around here. I just don't know what to do anymore." Shinji explained, looking lost.

"That's your problem? Ranma asked, surprised. "Shinji. TRUST ME here. Fourteen year olds don't have to be useful. Just do good at school and have fun, that's all."

"Ranma's right." Rei contributed, calmly. Most of our class mates do not seem to have any concrete role in society yet, and they are not considered useless.

"Yeh but…" Shinji said, before just shaking his head. "Never mind."

"All right, I get it." Ranma said, throwing up his hands as the group reached the school.

HR

Later on in the school day, Ranma, Asuka and Rei all got phone calls at the same time. Shinji looked down at his pocket, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. Asuka answered this time, and talked for a few minutes. "There's another angel coming." She said, confused. "It's only been a day since the last one."

"Well, let's go." Ranma said, and the three children ran from the room.

Shinji looked after them, hoping that they would be all right.

"Shinji, aren't you going to go with them?" Hikari asked, confused.

"No. I'm not a pilot anymore." Shinji responded, slowly.

"Well, in that case, let's get to the shelters. Stand up!" Hikari yelled, and the class obeyed, following her to the nearest shelter facility.

HR

Misato and Ritsuko were standing in the control room at NERV, even with the bandages that still covered several wounds on their bodies. "Can you give me a report on this angel's capabilities?" Misato asked, looking at Maya.

"I'm not sure, Ma'am. It's moving in slowly but we don't know if that's it's top speed. It can float in the air and it's stopped all conventional weapons fire so far." Maya reported, reading reports.

"ma'am, The EVA pilots have arrived." Aoba reported, interrupting Maya's speech.

"Good. Send Asuka up to see what she can do." Misato ordered, looking at the flying form of the Angel, which seemed to have two paper thin appendages where it's arms should be.

"Yes Ma'am!" Hyuga said, as he began to move Unit 02 to launch position. Asuka quickly climbed into her entry plug and the unit was positioned correctly. "Unit 02 is ready for launch." Hyuga reported, calmly.

"Launch EVA!" Misato said.

HR

Asuka felt a strong pulling sensation as her EVA was launched to the surface, and then the edges of the launch tunnel disappeared to reveal her enemy. "This is Asuka. I see it." She said, stepping out of the lift and grabbing a machine gun. She was more cautious than she had once been now, and carefully approached the angel. "Opening fire now." As she said this, she let loose with a stream of bullets that bounced off of the angel's AT field.

"I'm neutralizing the AT field, aren't I?" Asuka asked, in panic, as her Machine gun ran out of AMMO. Reaching over to a weapons storage area, she grabbed a double barrelled cannon and started firing it, to no avail. The angel, who had obviously gotten tired of being shot at, whipped out the strange paper thin arms on it's sides and whipped them down to slice straight through Unit 02's own arms.

Asuka screamed as she felt her arms being torn off, and then she started to get very angry. Charging forward, she decided that she was going to try and headbut the angel.

At NERV HQ, Misato saw what was coming. "cut off her nerve links, Now!" She yelled, as the angel's razor whip arms cut off Unit 02's head. As it's head flew off, the Evangelion stood there, motionless, a stream of blood coming from it's limb and head stubs.

"Are units 00 and 01 ready yet?" Misato asked, angrily.

"No Ma'am. Unit 00 still has a missing left arm." Hyuga reported.

"I see. Launch unit 01, then." Misato ordered, hoping that it would be enough.

Within moments, Ranma was on his way up to fight the angel. As he reached the surface, Ranma charged towards the angel, thinking that he knew what to do to beat it. On his way to the battle, he grabbed a progressive Axe and held it above his head. Coming close to the angel, he tried to bring the Axe down on it's head but it's eyes seemed to glow and then release powerful beams of energy that sent Ranma flying backwards. Ranma grunted in pain as he felt the sizzling of the front armour of his EVA's chest melting off, but forced himself to get up, not noticing that his umbilical cable had come lose during his flight. It was still far enough in to send an "all green" signal, but it wasn't transmitting power.

Coming in for another attack, Ranma was now aware of the laser weapon that the angel possessed as well as it's razor like arms. As a result, he mostly stayed back, trying to find some way of getting rid of the enemy without falling victim to it's attacks. Unfortunately, he spent too much time doing this, and the count down that he did not even realize had begun reached zero. As he was about to go in for another attack, Ranma's EVA lost power, causing him to stop in place.

"What the hell's going on with unit 01?" Misato asked, seeing the mecha stopped in place.

"It's run out of power!" Maya responded, doing a manual check of the reserve batteries.

"What? How?" Misato snapped, angrily.

"The umbilical cable stopped feeding it power and it just ran out. We don't know why!" Maya responded, franticly trying to figure out where the problem was.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Misato asked, as the angel began to pound on Unit 01. "All right. If Ranma can't defend himself, launch Rei's EVA."

"but ma'am. It's still missing an arm!" Hyuga objected, loudly.

"I don't care. It's all we've got." Misato said.

HR

Ranma desperately struggled to get Unit 01 to move, but nothing worked. He couldn't even feel her emotions anymore, only knowing that they were getting hit by the constant thumping sound from outside. "Move damn it!" He yelled, trying to channel some Chi into the Mecha to use as power. "MOVE!" The EVA just remained motionless, but the screen in front of him came on, showing the Angel battering away at him and the form of a one armed Unit 00 sneaking up behind it with a prog knife. As Rei was about to stab the angel in the core, a shutter slammed down around it, stopping her prog knife cold. The angel whipped around and took the weakened EVA by surprise, knocking it away with an angry roar. As it turned back to it's original target, something in Ranma snapped. If he couldn't get Unit 01 moving, he, Rei and EVERYONE else was going to die. Throwing all of his life energy into the Mecha, he yelled, "Move you god damned ugly monster!" As he did this, he felt a sensation that he had only felt once before, in a dream. His body was dissolving, becoming one with the Evangelion. 'What have I done?' He wondered, as he completely disappeared, leaving nothing behind but his plug suit.

HR

Back in the NERV control centre, Ritsuko, who had taken a place at a console to try and figure out what was going on, gasped in shock. "What the?" She asked, surprised.

"What is it?" Misato asked, taking her eyes off of the carnage on the screen in front of her.

"It's Unit 01. It's powering up again!" Ritsuko said, excited. "Ranma's synchronization rate has increased drastically. 400? I didn't even think that was possible!"

Misato turned back to the screen, seeing Unit 01 forcing it's way to it's feet, looking very much alive and fully powered. A huge blue aura flashed erratically around it and it began to fight the angel in front of it with smooth, fluid movements that something of that size had no right performing. As it Ripped off one of the angel's arms to reform one of it's own that had been cut off in the battle, the newly grown arm looked strangely like greyish human flesh. Letting off an ear piercing roar, Unit 01 jumped at it's enemy, determined to rip it to pieces and consume what it needed.

HR

From Gendo's office in the deepest regions of NERV, the commander watched with his hands crossed in front of his face. "She's aware…" He breathed, awed.

"Was this what you wanted all along?" Fuyutsuki asked, curiously.

"You know, if you had asked me that a week ago, I probably would have said yes." Gendo said, frowning. "Now, I just don't know."

END.

Note: For those who would say, "Gendo would never crumble like that!" Please recall WHO exactly is yelling at him, and how he would react to it. He knows that Ranma is becomng more and more like Yui, so having her ball him out like that is kind of like Yui doing the same. We all know how he reacts to Yui, right?

* * *

**Chapter 34: Chapter 34 What a tangled web**

* * *

Times note: Ranma's in a timeless dream state. Basically, no matter how much time passes in the outside world, he won't feel it. As a result, stuff from his perspective may seem to be moving too slowly. Especially when I have hour long events and days pass outside.

Oh, and this is the point where you should throw EVA cannon out the window. I warned you that this was an AU, and this is where it REALLY starts to show!

This chapter, and possibly a few future ones, is going to be used to build character for people other than Ranma. This one, of course, is based mostly on Ritsuko.

Chapter 34. What a tangled web…

Ritsuko Akagi sat in a darkened room, looking over the data on the computer screen in front of her. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" She whispered, paging through the massive report on an incident that had occurred ten years ago. True, she had known that Yui Ikari had disappeared in an accident, and then became part of EVA 01, but she had never known just how it had happened. In front of her now lay the reports, both from her mother and other people, that told exactly how Yui had been absorbed, and she thought it looked suspiciously similar to how Ranma Saotome had disappeared just hours earlier.

Unit 01 was, at least for now, secure in it's docking cage and most of the people involved in the last EVA battle were recovering from states of shock, but here she was trying to figure out how to get the pilot back while… no, she wouldn't think about that. Looking to one side of her keyboard, she saw the small white note that said "10:45 A.M." on it. She didn't want to know what they wanted this time. Unfortunately, with the disk she now held, she had just enough information to be dangerous. She wondered why Gendo had given it to her, but realized that Ranma was his pet project. That had been shown early on, right after his assimilation of Yui's genetic material had begun. Ritsuko thought that he was Gendo's misguided attempt to get his wife back, but she didn't care. She had to save him, since she was the one responsible for the EVA Pilots, in some ways even more so than Misato. She silently vowed to herself that she would not let one of her charges die, no matter what she had to do to prevent it.

HR

Several halls away, the Eva storage bays were silent, the four monstrous forms that were held there silent and un-moving. Unit 03 still had a small amount of it's damage from the battle with the thirteenth angel, and Unit 02 was a true wreck, it's head and arms destroyed. Unit 00 was missing an arm and had scratches all over it's armour, but perhaps the most disturbing sight was Unit 01, rapped in colossal bandages to cover it's now revealed bio-organic components. Inside the Evangelion, although not in the entry plug, Ranma Saotome floated through a mist of grey space.

"Where am I?" He demanded, as he tried to get his orientation. He couldn't gain any point of reference, however. There was no sky, no ground, not even a gravitational pull. all there was was the empty greyness. He floated through the emptiness for a time, looking around in a desperate attempt to find familiar surroundings, until something began to form. His surroundings seemed to ripple before they solidified into a building that he hadn't seen in a long time. His feet hit a solid wooden floor with a soft thump and he looked around. "Th… this is the dojo!" He said, amazed. Every board was re-created, down to the Tendo family shrine at the far end. The hard wood flooring creaked as he walked around the outer edge of the room, running a finger along the wall.

'Ranma…' Came a faint voice, that caused him to turn and look for the source. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it due to it's low tones. 'Ranma, join me.' It said again, and he placed it. it was coming from behind the door to the Dojo, from the house. Walking to the door, he slid it open and exited onto the walkway that connected the two parts of the building. Walking forward, he got to the house entrance and stopped. His eyes widened as he caught sight of what was behind the door. "Akane?"

HR

Rei Ayanami slammed her history book shut in a very rarely shown display of frustration. But how could she concentrate when the image kept circling in her brain? As she thought about it, the image of Ranma's empty plug suit floating in Unit 01's entry plug appeared again, and she tried to shake it off. It had been a day since Ranma had disappeared, and everyone was in different states of shock. Shinji, who had been in a shelter at the time of the battle, just refused to believe that Ranma had disappeared, until he was shown the video of the battle. Then, he became quiet and withdrawn. This only increased when he found out that Asuka was in the hospital, suffering from extensive bio-feed back damage.

The most disconcerting part was that there had been two angel attacks in three days, and Rei was afraid that another one was going to strike while she was the only, barely, functional EVA Pilot.

Deciding that she wasn't going to get any studying done and that she had far too much nervous energy, Rei put her books away and headed for the gym at NERV.

HR

At NERV headquarters, Shinji stood in front of a hospital room, pacing nervously. Should he go and see her? Would she even be awake? Firming his resolve, he opened the door and stepped in to see the Red haired EVA pilot laying in a medical bed, hooked up to heart monitors and intravenous tubes. She had no physical injuries what so ever, just an extensive amount of Nerve damage, but that was sufficient to put anyone down.

"Asuka, are you awake?" Shinji asked, as he stepped slowly towards the bed.

The girl winced slightly, but spoke anyways. "Keep it down Shinji. I've got a really bad headache at the moment." She said, softly. "How are the others, they won't tell me anything around here."

Shinji sighed. He didn't want to think about the others, but spoke anyways. "Well, Rei's fine, but Ranma…" He said, but trailed off.

"What about the Engelkind. He go and do something weird again?" Asuka asked, some of her old tones coming back.

"He disappeared." Shinji explained, quietly.

"What?" Asuka asked, trying to sit up. The screaming pain that came from every part of her body, even some parts she didn't know she had, stopped this plan quickly, however. "Ah, that hurts!" She wined, some tears coming to her eyes from the pain.

"Are you all right?" Shinji asked, concerned. He had never seen Asuka complain from pain before, even when she had been pummelled by Ranma that one time.

"Yeh, I'm all right Shinji." Asuka said, slowly. "The doctors say that I can get out of here in a week or so, but Dr. Akagi says that I won't be able to pilot an EVA for the next month, because of the Nerve damage."

Shinji winced. He knew that Asuka loved piloting her EVA more than anything else she did, and knew that not being able to do so would annoy her. "Well, I guess I should get going. I'll come and visit you again tomorrow, okay?" he said, hesitantly.

"All right. See you tomorrow." Asuka said, as she laid back on her bed. As Shinji turned to leave, she spoke again. "And thanks for visiting me, Shinji." She smiled slightly. "Not that I like seeing you or anything."

Shinji smiled slightly as well as he left the room, feeling good for no apparent reason.

HR

Ritsuko Stood in a dark, forbidding room, as the SEELE Monoliths surrounded her. "Good morning, Miss Akagi." Keel said, seeming to be cheerful and kind. Ritsuko knew that that would only last for the first few seconds of conversation, until the 'pleasantries' were over with, and then the demands would begin to fly.

"Good morning, Mr. Keel." Ritsuko responded, keeping up the pretence of a friendly meeting in the desperate hope that it would help her keep the SEELE council from executing the threat that they held above her head. She remembered the day that it had started well, shortly after she had become lead researcher for the Evangelion project. They had first gotten her to do what they wanted by telling her horror stories of what Gendo had 'planned' to do. They had said that he wished to bring the end of the world, and she had believed them for a time, until she had gotten to know the man and realized that his obsession for resurrecting his wife, while there, wasn't as intense as they claimed. Of course, by that time the damage was done. She had been working for them for months by that point, and they kept her at it by threatening to reveal her activities if she stopped. By the time she had gotten up enough courage to say "Screw the consequences, I'm stopping," the children had come to NERV and they had threatened to invade the Geofront and kill them all. So now, here she was, betraying the people she worked with in a desperate bid to keep them alive.

"Well, how was your work yesterday?" Keel asked, breaking Ritsuko out of her thoughts.

"It was… interesting." She said, hesitantly.

"And what of the disappearance of the third child?" Keel asked, the game moving more into serious questioning now.

"I think I know of a way to get him back. I'm going to present the idea to Gendo this afternoon." She said, wondering how the group would react to that.

"Oh, really?" Keel asked, curiously. "Well, you see that could be bad for us." He commented, softly. "Is there any way you could… fail… in your attempt?"

Ritsuko let her mask slip as she heard this. "You want me to deliberately sabotage an attempt to save someone's life?" She asked, indignantly.

"Well, the pilot of Unit 01 has been… an annoyance to our Plans and removing him would be useful." Keel said, offhandedly. "If I were you, I wouldn't dismiss the idea so quickly. After all, you only have one functional Evangelion unit left. It would be a shame if…"

Ritsuko's eyes opened in horror. "You mean…" She stammered, in shock. "I… I…" She continued, her mouth opening and closing rapidly.

"We will let you go now Miss Akagi, to think about your options. Please make the right choice." Keel said, as the Monoliths faded away and Ritsuko was left alone to look at the black walls all around her.

HR

In another chamber as dark as the first, Gendo stood and looked around apprehensively. None of the holographic monoliths had shown up yet, but he knew that they would appear in time. As he thought this, SEELE one faded into view, followed by the others. "Ah, Gendo. So good to see you." Keel said, almost sarcastically. "I'm sorry we were late, but we were discussing business with someone else." He explained, causing Gendo to wonder who else they had under their thumb.

"That's fine." Gendo said, coldly. "Now what did you want to discuss with me?"

"Several things, actually." Keel said, before his voice became harsher. "And first among them is the incident involving Evangelion Unit 01 yesterday."

"What about it?" Gendo asked, although he thought he had a pretty good idea.

"Why did you allow that scenario to progress that far?" Keel started, before another member of SEELE continued.

"Yes, the absorption of the angel's S2 organ was most… unfortunate."

"There was nothing I could do. NERV already had all of our forces deployed." Gendo responded.

"And what of unit 03?" Keel asked.

"It was damaged, and it didn't have a pilot." Gendo responded, quickly.

"No more damaged than unit 00, which you sent in. Also, Unit 03 HAS a pilot, you just relieved him of duty… why?" Keel asked, harshly.

"He requested to be taken off the pilots' list. I granted the request." Gendo said, not liking where the conversation was going.

"Well, isn't that convenient." Keel sneered, before the sound of him slamming his hand into something reverberated through the room. "I don't care what he asked for. You were to use all of the resources at your disposal, and still are. The plan has already been modified far too much!"

"I did what I felt was needed." Gendo said, glaring at SEELE one.

"I suggest you begin doing what WE think is needed, or the consequences could be most unfortunate, especially since NERV only has one functioning defender at the moment." Keel said, before making a snorting sound. "Just remember Gendo, you are to conform to the plan. Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." Gendo growled, before leaving the room.

"He is far too hard to control!" SEELE 3 said, disapprovingly. "We were wrong to give NERV to him."

"We had no choice in giving him NERV. He was the only one who could get the job done." Keel said, sternly. "I am thinking that we may want to get rid of him now, though. Are the special projects ready yet?"

"No, they're not complete yet. We were too dependant on the schedule. IT will be at least two months before we can activate the special projects." SEELE 5 responded, sourly.

"Should we use the final angel?" SEELE seven asked, quizzically.

"No, that would be far too large a diversion from the plan." Keel said, before sighing. "I'm afraid we're going to have to give Gendo just a bit more rope, before we can hang him. At least we are probably going to get rid of that annoyance, Ranma Saotome."

"Do you really think Dr. Akagi will deliberately sabotage her recovery plan?" SEELE 10 asked, and the others could tell that he was raising an eyebrow.

"If she doesn't… well, we have other ways." Keel said, mysteriously, before his monolith faded away.

The room fell silent, before the rest of the SEELE monoliths faded to blackness.

* * *

**Chapter 35: Chapter 35 Reality**

* * *

Chapter 35, Reality.

Ranma stood there with his mouth open, looking into her eyes. "A, Akane? Is that really you?" He asked, as he walked forward. She'd been gone for fifteen years, he had seen her die. He KNEW that she was dead, so what was she doing here?

"Of course it's me, Ranma." Akane said, smiling. "I've come to get you."

"You've come to..." Ranma asked, looking confused.

"I've come to get you." Akane explained, as she sat cross legged on the floor near the Tendo house's kitchen table. "We're all waiting for you, Ranma."

"What do ya mean you're all waiting for me?" Ranma asked, as a group of other people appeared behind Akane. His father, Mr. Tendo, Kasumi, Nabiki, His mother and everyone else. "We're all waiting for you to join us." Akane said, gesturing to them. "Will you come with me? I've really missed you."

Ranma looked confused, but nodded and started walking towards the group. As he went, he thought of Shinji, Asuka and Rei. Could he leave them in order to go with his friends and family? Could he leave them to fight the angels while he ran away? Stopping, he shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, but I can't go with you." He said.

"But, Ranma..." Akane said, looking sad. "We've been waiting for so long." Jumping to her feat, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Please, don't leave me again."

Ranma stopped, stunned as Akane's arms rapped around his neck. She was hugging him. She was also crying into his shoulder. "I'm sorry Akane, I really can't go."

"No, Ranma please. We need you with us!" Akane begged, crying harder. As she said this, Ranma stiffened.

"Get off of me." Ranma said, coolly, causing Akane to jerk back in surprise.

"Wh, what?" She asked, looking surprised.

"You ain't Akane." Ranma said, deadpan.

"What do you mean?" Akane asked, but a look of panic was present in her eyes.

"You ain't Akane. She doesn't beg me to do anything. She told me how it was, and if I acted like a jerk she'd mallet me. The fathers would have been yelling at me by now in stead of just standin there, and you would either be really angry, or understand why I have to stay. Get the hell away from me!"

As he said this, the replica of the Dojo began to fall apart, and Ranma growled. "Who the hell did that?" There was no response, and he just began to float in the grey void again.

HR

In the real world, Gendo Ikari stood at the front door of Misato Katsuragi's apartment, feeling unusually nervous. 'Why does this bother me so much?' He thought, as he waited. Before the children had shown up, Gendo had been capable of distancing himself from everything,not showing any emotion other than mild annoyance. Ever since Shinji showed up, and Ranma began to absorb the genetic material of Yui, his walls had begun to fall, and most of them had been brutally torn down several days ago. That, of course, lead him to this rather uncomfortable situation.

A few seconds later, Misato answered the door, in a dirty tank top and jean shorts, scratching her stomach. She abruptly stopped that, her eyes going wide as she saw Gendo standing there. "Um, Commander?" She said, nervously, looking like she'd like to run and hide.

"Hello Major, is Shinji here?" Gendo asked, his mouth forming into a small smile at the Major's discomfort.

"Um, yeah. He's in the first room down the hall." Misato said, pointing to Shinji's bedroom and quickly running off to her own bedroom. As Gendo walked through the house, he saw that the living room coffee table was covered in beer cans, and his nose wrinkled up.

Knocking on the door with "Shinchan's room" written on it in Misato's handwriting, he heard Shinji's voice from the other side. "Come in, it's open."

Opening the door, Gendo saw Shinji laying on the bed, a set of headphones locked over his ears. As Shinji caught sight of him, he quickly shot up in bed. "F, father? What's happening?"

"Hello Shinji." Gendo said, walking over to a chair next to the bed and clearing Shinji's books off of it, sitting down. "Nothing is happening. I just came to see you."

Shinji sighed. "No, you didn't. What do you want?" He asked, in a depressed voice.

Gendo was slightly taken aback. His son didn't even entertain the notion that Gendo had come without an ulterior motive. He sighed. "All right, I guess I should cut right to the chase. I have superiors in the government, and they want to know why I'm not using the fourth child or Evangelion unit 03. I told them that you requested to be removed from the list... but they ordered me to re-instate you."

"So you're telling me that you're ordering me to pilot EVA 03 again, right?" Shinji asked, rolling over in bed and staring at the wall.

Gendo reached out with one hand and rested it on Shinji's shoulder. "Shinji, I'm sorry. I have no choice."

"Sure, father. Like you had no choice but to send me away before, right? I'll pilot the EVA, but don't pretend to be parent of the year."

Gendo stiffened but reluctantly nodded. "Believe it or not, I didn't want to put you back into an EVA." He said, before standing up and walking from the room.

HR

Two weeks later, Ritsuko Ikagi sat in the central Dogma control center, working on the Magi for the plan to extract Ranma from Unit 01. For the past two weeks, Seele's order to botch the recovery operation on purpose played through her mind every day. Could she do that? Could she doom one of the EVA Pilots to death to save the rest? of course, at that thought an old star trek quote came into her mind. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Like all major computer geeks, she had seen all of the star trek movies at least once, but she wasn't sure that that little bit of wisdom was correct. As she worked at the computer terminal, she heard footsteps behind her.

"Hey Ritsuko, how's it going?" Misato asked, as she looked over the other woman's shoulder.

"It's, all right." Ritsuko said, hesitantly. "What's happening on your end?"

Misato shrugged. "Nothing that I know of. The EVAs are mostly repaired, but Asuka still can't pilot, right?"

Ritsuko nodded. "She won't be back up to full strength for another week or so." She explained, as she hit a few keys on her computer.

"Man, I'll be glad when Ranma's back so we can have all of our EVAs again." Misato said, as she looked at Unit 01, which still wore it's bandages in stead of it's normal armor.

"Yeah, so do I." Ritsuko said, reluctantly, and Misato left her alone, thinking that the hesitant tone was because she was working on something important and that she shouldn't bug her.

As Misato turned away, the three technicians in the front of the room began to go through rapid activity. "Major, we just detected a blue pattern." Hyuga said, and Misato cursed.

"Call the pilots." Misato ordered, as she turned around. "Get as much data on the angel as you possibly can before they get here."

"Should we call Pilot Ikari?" Maya wondered, as she reached for a phone. Misato thought for a second, and then nodded slowly.

Hr

Shinji sat in the entry plug of Unit 03, his hands once again clenching the control yokes, which were a slightly different shape than Unit 01's. "I hope this works this time..." He muttered, as he waited for the power to go on.

Inside the EVA, a presence stirred once again. It had been blocked last time, but it was going to link with the other mind that was within it this time. As Unit 03's power came on, it's consciousness touched that of Shinji and the young boy jumped. "Huh? What was that?" Shinji asked, as he could have sworn that there was a second person in the entry plug for a brief moment.

"We didn't detect anything strange from up here." Ritsuko said, from the control room, as she and her team ran pre-launch system checks.

"Are you ready for this?" Misato asked, concerned and glaring back at Gendo as she wondered why he was making his son fight in an Evangelion again.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Shinji said, as Misato's voice came over the comm system. "All right then, EVAs Launch!"

As Shinji felt the familiar jolt of the catapult, he actually found himself feeling exhilarated. Did he actually miss piloting the EVA? He quickly dismissed that thought as He hit the surface, seeing Rei standing next to him.

"Do you see the angel?" Rei asked, as she looked around the battle field.

"The angel is in the air above you." Misato said, as Shinji reached for a beam rifle which had been sent to the surface in order to take this angel down. As Shinji's hands touched the stock of the rifle and raised it, his EVA was suddenly bathed in light from above, and his world became a living hell.

HR

Rei looked on, astonished, as the light surrounded Shinji's EVA, apparently passing right through his AT field. "What is that?" She asked, as she traced the beam back to it's source, a floating and glowing object in the sky. Grabbing another energy weapon, a modified version of the JSDF's super laser with a power pack on the bottom for one charge, Rei took carefull aim at the angel with it and fired.

Unfortunately, the beam deflected harmlessly off of the angel's AT field, sending it's energy off into space.

HR

In Central Dogma, the staff was frantically trying to figure out what had happened to Shinji. His EVA had locked up as soon as the light had hit it, and they could hear short, sharp gasping whimpers coming from his comm channel.

"Shinji, are you all right?" Misato asked, for the third time. She had been trying to get into contact with the boy ever since the strange light show had begun, but hadn't gotten a response. This time, though, she got one.

"It's... It's in my head." Shinji's voice said, choked off and scared sounding. "Get out of my mind!"

"Ma'am, Pilot Ikari's ego barrier is breaking down!" Maya reported, as the NERV techs and staff watched in horror.

HR

Shinji found himself in a dark room, with only one spotlight that was focused on him. "What? Where am I?" He asked, as he stepped forward. Strangely, the spotlight moved with him, illuminating more of the black floor he was standing on.

As he walked, he began to hear voices. "Hey, that's the Ikari kid. You know, the one who lost against the last angel?" "Yeah, it's really a shame. All of that section of Tokyo 3 was blown up before the other pilots stepped in." "What kind of incompetent did they recruit, anyways?"

"What?" Shinji asked, looking around in confusion. "No battle like that ever happened!"

"Yes it did, real shame too. The angel killed Asuka Langley as she was running to NERV to fight." "Man, that Shinji guy's a loser."

"No, No. That didn't happen!" Shinji yelled, beginning to run.

"You failed us Shinji!" Came Ranma's voice, as he lay on the floor, battered and bloody.

"Ranma, are you all right?" Shinji asked, kneeling down next to him.

"Get away from me failure!" Ranma yelled, and punched Shinji, sending him spiraling into the darkness. Misato was there, getting pissed drunk. "Oh, if it ain't Shinji. How ya doin Kid? Oh, ya can't come home wit me. The place got blown up. Penpen got blown to bits... and it's all your fault!" She said, before her head slumped to her breast and she fell asleep..

"No, it wasn't me!" Shinji yelled, as he ran further. Asuka, with a steel girder through her back, Rei's body, cut up with burns all over it, The NERV Day crew piled in a mass grave.

"Feh, I guess you failed us all, eh Shinji?" Came a voice, which the young boy recognized.

"F, Father?" Shinji asked, as his father left a black shadow and entered the light.

"I should have known you couldn't protect us. Why did I put my faith in you?" Gendo asked, as he turned away.

"You're wrong!" Shinji yelled, as he reached out and struck his father. Just then, the older man dissolved into a mist of light and faded away.

"He's.. right." Shinji said, as he fell to the ground of the black pit in which he sat. "I'm just... a failure!" As Shinji's depression grew, something nearby began to resonate with him, a source of power which increased as his depression did. "What's happening?" Shinji asked, but was now so deep in a hole that seemed to form faster than it should that he couldn't be bothered enough to check it out. Suddenly, Shinji found himself back inside the EVA, and knew what he should do.

HR

"Status on Pilot Ikari?" Gendo asked, coolly, managing not to show the worry that he felt over his son's predicament.

"His ego barrier is almost completely gone." Maya said, as she consulted her instruments.

"Wait a second..." Ritsuko said, as she stared at her own console. "His EVA's AT field power is increasing at an amazing rate!"

"What?" Gendo asked, as he ran to Ritsuko's console and looked at the readings.

"I don't know what's going to happen, but it's going to be big!" Ritsuko exclaimed, as she looked at the building numbers.

"Can you eject the plug?" Gendo asked, some worry showing on his face now.

"No, the EVA's controls were all locked up by the angel's beam, including that one. I just hope Shinji's all right." Ritsuko said, as she watched Unit 03's power build.

HR

On the battlefield, EVA Unit 03 was beginning to show a greenish battle aura, before it suddenly jolted, free of the angel's beam's effects, and pointed it's hands into the air. With a growling noise that, if it were human, probably would have been something like Shi Shi Hokodan!" the monstrous mecha fired a huge green beam into the sky, overpowering the angel's beam of light, and then canceling out it's AT field. When it hit the angel, the green beam exploded in a spectacular show of energy, and when it cleared the angel was nowhere to be seen.

In the cockpit of Unit 03, Shinji Ikari was sleeping.

END.

Notes.

Hmm... you know, that angel really committed suicide.

My comp has tech difficulties, and this one has a wonkey spell check. Sorry if it sucks...

I have serious reservations about this chapter, but it's going up anyways. It's the closest thing to good writing I have been able to manage in the last three weeks. For those who wanna know when I'll start updating seriously again, read my Bio!

At any rate, have fun if you can and R&R!

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**Chapter 36: Chapter 36 An Empty Plugsuit**

* * *

Chapter 36, An empty plugsuit.

Ritsuko Akagi and the main staff of NERV stood behind the glass of the EVA storage room's control room, tension radiating from everyone there. Ritsuko especially looked tense, opening and closing her fists convulsively as she paced behind the backs of her assistants.

Behind this group, The three remaining EVA Pilots stood, each lost in their own thoughts. Shinji, the one on the left, wondering what had happened the week before when he had fought the last angel, and why, for some reason, he had been feeling much better and less depressed ever since. Asuka, standing next to him, was wondering why she seemed to want to reach out and hold Shinji's hand in her nervousness about whether the operation to get Ranma back would succeed or not. She didn't like the back up, did she? "No way!" She said, in a voice that was just low enough for Ritsuko and her team to miss.

"Did you say something, Asuka?" Shinji asked, looking at her strangely.

"Nothing." She said, hoping that he didn't see the blush on her face as she did.

Rei Ayanami, however, was completely oblivious to what was going on around her, staring at the glass that separated the group from the still form of EVA 01, it's body still mostly covered in bandages. All she cared about was getting Ranma back at the moment, and it, or variations of it, had been all she had thought about for the past month. Was this what truly caring about someone felt like? If so, she almost wanted it to stop. The pain that flared in her heart every time she thought about him was becoming very hard to handle.

"All right," Ritsuko said, in a calm, confident sounding voice that didn't betray any of the feelings within her chest, begin the process.

HR

In the grey void that existed within Unit 01, Ranma floated once more. To him, the confrontation with Akane and his family had only occurred a short while ago, but he could pick up a sense of tension radiating from outside of wherever he was. Struggling towards the feeling, he first began to notice that the mists were thinning, before a clearing formed around him, a large leafy tree in it's middle. He once again felt his feet hit solid ground as he looked around quizzically, thinking that he had never seen a place like this before. His eyes stopped scanning the area as they settled on a brown haired woman who wore a short green skirt and white blouse. She was reclining against the tree and reading a book. "Is that…" He wondered, before walking forward.

The woman looked up from her book, Ranma only having time to see that it was actually a family photo album before she closed it and laid it on the ground. "Hello, Ranma." She said, gently.

Ranma stared at the woman, surprised for a moment, before he recognized her. Actually, the last place he had seen her was in a mirror, wearing a blue and black plugsuit that looked like a negative of his own. "You're Yui Ikari." He said, with a strong sense of certainty.

The woman smiled softly. "Yes, I suppose you would know who I am." She said, looking Ranma up and down. "You have been absorbing parts of my memory for quite a while now."

"H… How'd you know about that?" Ranma stuttered, not sure what he should feel after a statement like that. Anger? Guilt? This just wasn't one of those things that he had a lot of experience with.

Yui laughed, the musical sound flowing through the clearing. "Ranma, Considering the fact that I had to take half of my memories from your head in order to understand what's going on, I'm surprised you don't."

Ranma blinked stupidly and shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about." He finally admitted, frustrated.

Yui sighed. "Well, you somehow managed to do the same thing I did ten years ago and get absorbed into the EVA. To tell you the truth, I was considering overpowering your mind and taking your place when they try to recover you at first…"

Ranma immediately took a defensive stance. "You're gunna do what?" He asked, looking at Yui suspiciously.

Yui sighed again. "Relax. I said I was 'considering' it. I would have even gone through with it if you hadn't managed to see through the elusion of the Dojo but…"

Yui was cut off, as Ranma's defense position quickly turned offensive, the boy glaring at her with fire in his eyes. "You telling me you did that?" He demanded, feeling the sting that he had felt when he had turned his back on the Tendos, even if they were just some sort of mental trick.

"No, that wasn't me. It was the remnants of the angel that we absorbed that did that. No, I just would have taken advantage of you not being here… but with how you protected Shinji for so long I," She stopped, as the sun filled clearing rippled, waves of some sort of unreal light pulsing through and around it. "Oh, I'm out of time. They're calling you back. Remember, protect Shinji for me all right?" Yui asked, as Ranma felt a pulling sensation on his body.

"But what about you?" He asked, as he started to be pulled away.

"I'll be fine, just go!" Yui said, a sad half smile adorning her face. Ranma looked at the woman who was falling away from him and cursed. He couldn't just leave her inside the EVA, even if he would take her memories with him when he left. It seemed somehow not right to leave this poor woman forever floating in the grey mist that had almost driven him insane in the short time he had been here. Struggling mightily, he managed to fight the pulling force from behind him, dragging himself closer to Yui.

"What are you doing?" Yui yelled, disbelief clearly on her face.

"I ain't just gunna leave you here, now c'mon!" Ranma responded, the Ikari woman looking at him in shock. Nevertheless, she stretched out her arm and took his hand, Being hauled into the fourteen year old Martial artist's arms. Incidentally, if anyone had been able to see this it would have been quite a comical sight.

HR

In the world of the living, Ritsuko was staring at the panel in front of her nervously, the small red Icon on the bottom left hand side blinking, seemingly harmless. In reality, it was anything but, sending a series of override signals to the EVA, causing it to cancel the recovery sequence and vent the entry plug. Her hand hovered over a key that would activate the program behind the Icon, the fingers shaking like the branches of a tree in a high wind.

"We've got a faint ego barrier!" Aoba reported, from the front of the room.

Misato, who had come into the room half way through the procedure, smiled. "Is he coming back, Ritsuko?"

"It's looking good…" Ritsuko said, the nervousness in her voice being chocked up to excitement by the people in the room. She looked back at Shinji, Asuka and Rei, both to send them a re-assuring smile and to confirm the reasons for doing what she was about to. 'I'm sorry Ranma.' She thought, before clicking the button that would activate the small red Icon.

Within a few seconds, the results of her actions showed up on the consoles of the three technicians in front of her. "What the?" Maya Ibuki stammered, looking at the readouts on her panel. "Ma'am, there's something wrong here."

"Report." Ritsuko snapped, knowing what was coming, and what she'd set in motion.

"I… I don't know." Maya said, uneasily. "I think the EVA's rejecting the recovery protocols. The program's terminating, and the entry plug's going to vent it's LCL!"

"Ma'am, there's something strange happening to the ego trace!" Aoba said, scanning his own station. "It's getting… bigger."

"It's becoming stronger?" Ritsuko asked, confused, typing rapidly on her console, both to make it look like she was doing something about the plug venting, and to stop Maya from doing the same. At the moment, Ritsuko was cursing herself for training that girl so well.

"No Ma'am, I don't mean it got stronger, I mean it got bigger. It's like the pilot's sense of self was expanded somehow." Aoba reported, sounding very confused.

Ritsuko nodded, deciding to study this phenomenon more closely in the computer logs of the day, if she could bring herself to look at them at all.

A few minutes later, while Misato and the EVA pilots watched helplessly, a piercing, high-pitched beep filled the room and Maya slammed her fist on her console. "Ma'am, we've lost him. The entry plug's evacuating it's LCL now." The tone of defeat in her voice tore at Ritsuko's heart, as she looked over her shoulder to see that Misato and the pilots were gone.

HR

On the catwalk surrounding EVA 01, Misato, Shinji, Asuka and Rei stood, looking at the crumpled mass of a black and blue plugsuit that lay on the floor. Three of them stared in shock, while the fourth, Rei, slowly walked forward.

Rei had been expressing more and more of her emotions over the last few months, so she found it curious that she felt totally numb now, as she picked up Ranma's crumpled plugsuit. "R, Ranma-Kun. You said you wouldn't leave." She said, in a quiet voice, before falling to her knees and clutching the material to her chest. Soft sobs racked her body, as the others looked on sympathetically. In the background, Ritsuko Akagi also felt like crying, wondering precisely what she had done.

HR

In the grey fog, Ranma carried Yui's body, as he felt the pulling sensation slacken and die. The light around them seemed to dim, making the fog just short of black. "What's goin on?" Ranma asked, looking around, confused.

Yui sighed. "It looks like neither of us are getting out of here." She continued, looking at their darkened surroundings. As she said that, the two heard a soft voice whispering "Ranma-Kun, you said you'd never leave." Before it broke down in sobs.

"Rei?" Ranma asked, as he looked around to find the source of the sounds. Settling on a direction, he used his Chi to push himself through the mist, which seemed to be like a type of null gravity, allowing him to fly. As he went, he approached another lit area of the mist and increased speed, passing through what felt like a membrane of water.

He briefly wondered what would happen to Yui if he got out, before he felt her body in his arms dissolving and melting into his own, his head once again filling with the memories that he once had, and many, many more. Pushing them to the back of his mind, Ranma continued and the grey mists suddenly resolved themselves into a grid pattern. 'What the heck's that?' he thought, before he crashed into the grid work of the catwalk that surrounded unit 01's storage area. He groaned, picking his head up from the floor and looking around to see everyone else gathered around his empty plugsuit. "Hey, what's wrong Rei?" He asked, in a weak voice.

"Ranma?" Rei asked, dropping the plugsuit and whipping her head towards the sound of a voice. She saw Ranma, laying on the catwalk in front of the EVA's core, naked as the day he was borne. Quickly, she jumped to her feet, running over to his fallen form. "Are you all right?"

Ranma smiled up at her. "Of course. I don't lose." He said, before Rei threw herself down on him, hugging him and smiling more widely than anyone had ever seen her do before.

HR

A few hours later, Ritsuko stood in the darkness of the SEELE conference room once again, trying to put up a brave facade. She had just finished performing a physical on Ranma a few minutes before, and if it weren't for the fact that she had to be here, she would still be conducting tests to figure out what exactly had happened and how he had managed to come out of the EVA's core. As it was, however, she wasn't looking forward to what was going to happen next.

Just as she thought that, SEELE's monoliths faded into view, intimidating as ever. "Has the third child been 'Lost' successfully?" Keel asked, in an inquisitive tone.

Ritsuko gulped, before responding. "No, Mr. Keel."

"Oh, and why not?" He asked, some anger creeping into his tone. "We DID make the consequences clear to you if you failed in your mission, did we not?"

"It wasn't my fault." Ritsuko objected, nervously. "The retrieval operation failed, he just came back without it!"

"That story seems… Rather fantastic." Keel said, frowning. "Miss Akagi, this was a very disappointing performance… we will have to perform 'punitive' action."

"Wait, Mr. Keel please!" Ritsuko said, as the monoliths faded away into the blackness of the room. "NO!" She yelled, before collapsing to the floor, her fists shaking as they rested against the black material that the Holo conference chamber was made of.

On another line, Keel began to talk to the other members of SEELE. "SO, what do you think?" He asked, and behind his monolith he had raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know. Considering that child's makeup, it is entirely possible that it came back even after Miss Akagi sabotaged the recovery process." SEELE two commented, slowly.

"Yes, but we still have to act on our word, and it would be a radical change to the plan if we neutralized NERV now.." SEELE four cut in, causing the group to fall into silence for a moment.

SEELE six was the next to speak. "What if we only seize a few of the targets?" It asked.

"That is quite a good idea." Keel said, as the meeting of world powers continued.

Notes.

Sigh yet another attempt by me to jumpstart my muse. This chapter brought to you by materia-Blade, (Read that author's fics NOW! ) for poking me after I poked him. PS: Materia is an element from Final Fantasy VII which contains Mako Energy, their version of Magic. I won't say any more than that, and If you wanna know why I mention this, ask Materia-Blade. :D

Also, I have a little vote for you all. This fic has two endings. Not gunna tell ya what they are, but I will say this. Which do you want me to publish as the first, cannon ending and which as the second, alternate ending. Would you like the ending that my Muse wants, may make people wanna kill me, or the ending I originally thought up, less likely to result in my death, to come first?

* * *

**Chapter 37: Chapter 37 External Presure**

* * *

Man, with the last few chapters and this one, it seems like the only character that's descending into a state of slight insanity in my fic is Ritsuko, which is really too bad because I like her. I think she's my way of making up for Shinji and Asuka's relatively stable characters, even if they DO make sense with the way I laid the fic out.

At any rate, I've written 3500 words of "The end of angel of light," this fic's End of Evangelion. Sorry it took me so long to update this, but if I'm really lucky, I can get the whole mess done by February tenth, and have the whole fic written in a year, YAY! Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter 37, External pressure, or Why SEELE clubbing should be Legal.

Ranma sighed in contentment as he lay back in his bed, tired and ready to get to sleep. He had been released from Unit 01 earlier that day, and ever since the rather embarrassing incident on the EVA catwalk, he had been rushing to get dressed, or sitting in Ritsuko's lab being poked. Trying to stop thinking and start sleeping, he rolled over in the bed and started to review Kata in his mind. Ever since he was a little kid training with Genma, he did this in stead of the western "Counting sheep."

HR

Ranma opened his eyes in the clearing with the large tree, where he had met with Yui before. "What's goin on?" He asked, as he looked around. Catching sight of a female form under the tree, he walked towards her, only to stop short. This definitely wasn't Yui. The girl had short, auburn hair, styled into a Pigtail, and a rather short figure, barely reaching above five feet. Not to mention she looked a lot younger than the Ikari woman. "Who are you?" Ranma asked, cautiously.

The girl turned around and grinned at him, the grin seeming somewhat familiar. "What, you don't recognize me?" she asked, pouting. "All right, fine. Haven't you looked in a mirror when you got hit with cold water lately?"

Ranma thought for a moment, and then his eyes widened. Yes, this girl did look sort of like his own female form, accept for a few little changes. Of course, seeing it somewhere other than as his own reflection had made it hard to recognize. "You some sorta alternate personality or something?" He asked, worriedly. He really didn't want to be going insane, after all."

The girl looked surprised for a moment. "So, you're already using the memories? Well, yes I suppose I am like an alternate personality. I was created when you were stupid enough to pull Yui Ikari's mind out of Unit 01 with you, when you've only got one body to put the two minds in!" She said, finishing with a small amount of heat.

Ranma backed up, gulping a little. "So… You're Yui?" He asked, confused, not sure why she would have referred to herself in the third person if that was the case.

The girl shook her head. "No, I'm not Yui. I'm kind of a safeguard that our mind put into place to keep us from going insane. Could you imagine what would happen if another person's entire life were dumped into your head without you knowing what was going on? Basically, I'm just here to warn you so that you don't go insane."

"Warn me about what?" Ranma asked, worriedly. He was beginning to get the idea of what was going on, but figured that he should ask, just in case.

"It's really hard to explain… Just, tomorrow, when you wake up, Remember that You're mostly Ranma Saotome, Okay?"

"…Okay." Ranma said, uncertainly. "But what's gunna happen to you?"

"Me, I'm going to cease to exist when you wake up." The girl said, then noticing Ranma's horrified expression, she quickly explained. "Relax, I won't really be gone. I'm just kind of a part of your mind that broke off to do this. Since I'm you, I'll be fine."

Ranma looked uncertain, but nodded his head within a few seconds. "Well, if you're sure then I guess..." He started, before the sound of his morning alarm cut through the scene and he shot up in bed. He reached over and slapped the off button on the alarm, before getting out of bed and gathering his clothing on auto-pilot, as usual. Strangely,, the dream he had had the night before was still in his head, in perfect clarity, however he could now remember it from both perspectives. Of course, the female perspective seemed to have all he thought about as his University Psyche courses, but… wait, he hadn't gone to university, had he? Shaking that off, he walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror before splashing herself with cold water to wake up. A few moments later, the door opened, and Rei stepped in. The girl seemed startled for a moment, before she dove for Ranma and hugged her.

For a split second, Ranma wanted to flinch away because she was hugging another girl, but suppressed it. She was seriously feeling off today. "Rei, are you all right?" She asked instead, looking down at the blue haired girl.

"It wasn't a dream." Was Rei's only response, as she clung to Ranma.

The pigtailed martial artist was getting rather uncomfortable. Being in a near-naked embrace with Rei in the bathroom, both parts of her mind decided, was a rather embarrassing proposition, although it felt very nice. "Um, Rei? Shouldn't you start gettin washed?" Ranma asked, embarrassed.

Rei disengaged from Ranma's arms and began doing so, but she kept throwing glances back at him to make sure he was still there, and just stared into his face while they were in the bath.

"Rei, what's wrong." Ranma finally asked, after the two were out of the bath, and he felt more comfortable about talking.

"I am sorry, Ranma. I just…" Rei said, breaking off for a second before continuing. "It felt wrong, for some reason, when you were not here. Please don't do that again."

Ranma smiled at the blue haired girl. "Don't worry, Rei. I'll always find some way to get back to ya, even if I do have to leave."

"Please ensure that you do." Rei said, levelly. Ranma thought that she was joking for a moment, before he saw that she was not changing expression at all.

HR

At school that morning, the four EVA pilots looked around, confused. There was no one there, not even the teachers.

"Did they close down the schools while I was gone?" Ranma asked, hopefully.

"Well, there haven't been many kids in school lately, but we weren't told about this." Asuka said, annoyed.

"Maybe we should go back home." Shinji said, uncertainly. Beginning to turn and do just that, his foot landed on top of a small piece of white paper. "What's this?" He asked, bending to pick the object up. Reading it over, his face became increasingly puzzled until he handed it to Asuka, who read it as well.

"What the? We never got one of these." Asuka said, reading the paper aloud. "Notice of Evacuation. All Tokyo 3 residents are hereby ordered, by the Japanese Federal Government, to leave the area immediately."

"We did not get one either." Rei responded, looking over Asuka's shoulder at the form. "Maybe we should go to NERV and ask Ikari san or Misato san about them?"

Ranma nodded in agreement, and the four children headed off of the school grounds and towards NERV HQ.

HR

Later that day, Misato held one of the white evacuation notices in a tightly clenched fist, shaking it in front of the face of a man who was displayed on the main screen at central Dogma. "And what exactly is this?"

The man looked at the paper impassively before shrugging his shoulders. "It's an evacuation order on Tokyo 3. What does it look like?"

Misato gritted her teeth. She positively hated dealing with Politicians, especially when they thought you were wasting their time. "I THINK that NERV wasn't informed of this evacuation, and the only reason we knew about it was because one of the forms found it's way into the possession of our pilots!" She yelled. If she had had just a bit more Chi ability, she would have pulled off Soun Tendo's demon head ability perfectly.

"I. I'm sorry about that Ma'am." The politician said, having obviously been scared shitless regardless of Misato's flawed technique. "W, we were told to leave NERV personnel out of the mailing list, I have no idea why my superiors didn't inform you. I'm telling the truth, I swear."

Misato nodded. "I see, well thank you." She said, trying to reign in her temper. "Well, to tell the truth I would have probably asked for an evacuation of the city soon anyways." She said, deflating.

"Don't you think we should have done that a while ago, Ma'am?" Aoba piped up.

Misato just glared at the tech until he looked away, before walking out of the room to take her report on this new development to Gendo.

HR

Later on, Gendo Ikari looked over a series of reports. They didn't exactly paint a very good picture. The major population had been withdrawn from Tokyo 3, and apparently their supply budget from the government had been cut back as well. There was something going on, and he didn't know what it was. To add to that, he had tried to get in contact with Chairman Keel of the SEELE council to ask what was going on, but the Holo conference line hadn't gone through.

As he saw Dr. Akagi entering the room, he preyed that she was bringing good news, however the rather disturbed look on her face didn't make him very confident. "And what do you have to tell me, Doctor?" He asked, setting the reports down on his desk.

Ritsuko gave a few false starts, before clearing her throat and trying again. "Commander, I'm afraid there's been an accident in Rei's Biolab."

"Oh, and what was that doctor?" Gendo asked, clutching his head. He could feel a rather large headache coming on.

"Sir, all of Rei's duplicates were destroyed." Ritsuko continued, as Gendo's face turned slightly pale.

"And how did that happen?" Gendo asked, in a controlled voice. Truthfully, this wasn't as large of a disaster as it could once have been, at least not for him. For NERV itself though, losing the potential to create a dummy system was a rather great blow.

"The…" Ritsuko started, shifting uncomfortably. "The auto destruct failsafe was inadvertently tripped." Seeing Gendo about to open his mouth, she quickly continued on. "It was a glitch in the Magi. I got it tracked down, and eliminated it. It was caused by the modifications we made to fix the database errors…" She trailed off, as Gendo raised a hand.

"That's all right, Doctor." He said, turning to a computer on his desk. "Please get back to your work."

"Yes sir." Ritsuko said, relieved. Fortunately, Gendo couldn't see her face as she hurried out of the room. Unfortunately, the man wasn't an idiot.

Slamming his fist down on his desk, Gendo gritted his teeth. "Does SEELE really think I'm that much of a fool?" He growled, as he logged onto the facility's network and began to do some snooping of his own.

HR

Outside of Gendo's office, Ritsuko sank to the floor, her hands trembling slightly. She had done it. She had managed to carry out the last instruction that SEELE had given her. They had told her that they required the Rei copies destroyed, and they would put their plans for invading the Geofront on hold if this could be done, and she had done it. Of course, if she had been thinking clearly, both then and now, she would have noticed something very wrong with this line of reasoning. Now, however, all she was feeling was relief that Gendo had not seen through her deception.

"Ritsuko, are you all right?" Came a voice, from right next to the blonde woman's ear.

"GAAH!" Ritsuko yelled, jumping to her feet and spinning to see Misato, her hands out in warding signs.

The Black haired woman surveyed her friend critically. Her hair was tousled, the brown at it's roots showing clearly, and she looked like she hadn't slept in a week. "Are you all right, Ritsuko?" She asked, concerned.

"I'm fine." Ritsuko said, catching her breath as her heart rate returned to normal from it's incredibly fast pounding. "I'm just fine."

Misato gazed at her best friend for a moment, before the other woman walked past her and down the hall. "I was going to ask if you wanted to… go drinking with Kaji and I." She Trailed off as she saw Ritsuko round a corner and disappear from sight.

HR

That night, Misato was supporting Kaji, as he was the one who had had far too much to drink. "Well, I suppose I'm returning the favor." She said, with a laugh, Remembering the time he had carried her home on his back.

"Yeah, but you aren carryin me on yer back." Kaji slurred, with a bit of a laugh. Misato giggled as well at the mental image of her with Kaji slung over one shoulder, before arriving at her apartment door.

"Well, I guess you should probably stay here for the night." Misato said, looking at the slightly drunken man.

"I I guess so." Kaji returned, with an over-exaggerated wink

HR

As Misato and Kaji lay in Misato's bed, both quite satisfied, the female of the two snorted in disgust. "You know, a few months ago I hit you over the head with a hammer for being a pervert." She said, lazily.

"Well, I suppose times change." Kaji responded, having managed to sober up at some point. That had always been a trait of his that Misato envied, his ability to become stone cold sober if necessary, no matter how much alcohol he drank. It had also saved him from a good deal of the chewing out that she had gotten during college.

"Times change?" Misato asked, incredulously. "It was less than a year ago!"

"Then they change pretty fast with us." He responded, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her lips. As he did so, the door to her bedroom crashed open, revealing a man dressed in a black commando outfit and holding a heavy pistol. Misato reached rapidly for her gun, which was on her bedside table, but a bullet impacted about half a centimeter from her hand before she could touch it.

"Oh shit." Kaji muttered, that being the most apt set of words that came to mind.

END.

Note: If anyone's wondering how Tokyo 3 was evacuated without NERV knowing, the place has been so badly battered by angel attacks that there're now few enough people for it to actually be possible.

Secondly, I'm sorry for Making Misato an obvious relative of the Tendos. By the way, if you couldn't get that with what I did in chapter 22, and this, then you need help. :D

And finally, the last scene will make sense… just give it time.

* * *

**Chapter 38: Chapter 38 Revelations, Ranma Prologue**

* * *

Happy 100,000 words AOL! Yeah! This is the first fic I've ever written that got this big.

Chapter 38. Revelations, Ranma. Prologue.

Misato and Kaji walked in front of their gun wielding escort, entering the main room of the Katsuragi apartment, and then proceeding into the hall where two more black clad figures stood. "Targets secured." Their escort said, in a calm and quiet voice.

"Good." One of the other figures, apparently the group's leader, said as two more men exited the Katsuragi apartment with Shinji and Asuka. The young Ikari boy was quietly following his captor's visible signals, but the German redhead kept mouthing very vulgar curses in her native language, quickly followed by a jab to the back of her head by her captor's gun. "Now that we've got these two, it should be safe to engage the next target."

"What are you doing?" Misato asked, confused. She was slightly drowsy from the alcohol, and unfortunately she hadn't gotten much of an adrenaline rush from what was going on, so she wasn't thinking clearly.

"My guess is that they're here to capture us." Kaji drawled, looking between the five dark figures.

"You're partially right, Mr. Ryouji." One of the figures said, before leveling his gun at Kaji's chest. The JSSDF spy tried to avoid the shot that came next, but it hit him in the right side of his chest, sending him spinning 180 degrees and falling to the ground.

"Kaji!" Misato and Asuka yelled, however the older of the two was grabbed by her arm before she could run to her fallen lover. Asuka made it to him, kneeling by his side and trying to stop the bleeding.

In the apartment next to Misato's, Ranma Saotome jerked from a light sleep at the loud bang of a firearm discharging. Most noises weren't enough to wake him up, however the sound of the weapon's sharp report, and the screams that followed, were some of the few that could.

Quickly heading for the apartment's front door, he encountered Rei on the way but pointed a finger back towards her room.

The girl was about to argue, but Ranma shushed her, pointing again to her bedroom. With a worried expression, the first child headed back to her room. She would have defied Ranma and gone to the hall to check the noises she had heard out, however she knew that she would probably be a liability in a fight, even with her training.

Opening the apartment door, Ranma stared in surprise at the scene before him. He noted that Kaji was laying on the ground, a small pool of blood spreading out from his body, and Misato and Shinji were standing with guns to their heads. At the sight of the Ikari boy's position, he almost locked up in terror. "What the hell's going on here?" He said, instead.

"Ah, and there's the final Target just as planned." One of the black clad men said, looking Ranma over. "I don't know why they said this kid was so dangerous." He grumbled, before digging into a small pouch on the waist of his suit and tossing something to Ranma. Instinctively, the pigtailed martial artist caught the device, as it didn't set his danger sense off.

"What're ya trying to do, give me a gift?" Ranma growled, holding the metallic bracelet he had been tossed up in the dim light from the hallway's windows."

"Just put it on." The black clad man ordered, before pulling out his gun, and walking to Asuka's position kneeling next to Kaji. "Or these two get some nice new holes in their heads, understand?"

Ranma analyzed the situation. There were five people with pretty mean looking automatic pistols in front of him. Normally, that wouldn't be much of a problem especially with his AT field and extreme speed however three of those pistols were pointed at targets other than himself, and he wasn't sure if he could take out their owners before they pulled the triggers. Reluctantly, he put the small metal bracelet around his right forearm. As the clasp clicked shut, Ranma's battle aura blazed for a brief moment before fading out, and the boy collapsed to the ground.

"Was that supposed to happen?" The gunman with his weapon against Misato's temple asked, curiously.

"Who knows?" The leader said, holstering his weapon and walking to Ranma's unconscious form. "Let's just get out of here, we have what we came for."

Misato's gunman nodded, grabbing his captive by the arm, as he and the other three followed their leader from the building.

Misato wondered where she was being taken, until the group came into view of a large black van, with the two back doors wide open. She allowed herself to be pushed into the darkness of the van, and Ranma was shoved in roughly after her before the sound of a slamming door reverberated through the small space and everything went dark.

HR

Back at Misato's apartment, Shinji and Asuka were recovering from a state of paralyzing shock. The German girl stood from her position, having used part of her undershirt to bind Kaji's bullet hole as well as she could. "We… Have to call NERV." She stuttered, walking into Misato's apartment. Shinji numbly nodded in agreement before following her. As he entered, Rei poked her head out from her and Ranma's apartment, seeing Kaji's form and coming out more completely.

"What happened, Shinji san?" She asked, catching the Ikari boy as he was crossing the threshold into Misato's place.

"I, They came and…" Shinji muttered, incoherently.

"What happened, where's Ranma?" Rei demanded, grabbing Shinji and shaking him slightly.

Shinji's words began to make more sense after this, as if the blue haired girl had shaken something loose. "They shot Kaji, and took Misato and Ranma. I don't know where they went." He responded, finally.

"Who were they?" Rei asked, calmly.

"I don't know. They were wearing black combat suits and masks." Shinji responded, as Asuka came out of the apartment.

"NERV's sending Dr. Akagi to look after Kaji. Commander Ikari says that we should come in, too." She said, slowly, as her eyes fell on Kaji's body and began to well up with tears.

As she broke down, the situation seemingly too much for her, Shinji tried to comfort her and Rei just stood there, Ranma's promises of this morning running through her mind. "You'd better come back, Ranma." She murmured, low enough for the other two not to hear.

HR

In the black van, Misato fidgeted in the darkness, shivering at the coldness of the steel floor she was sitting on. Of course, the people who had abducted her hadn't bothered to let her get fully dressed, so she was freezing in just her uniform jacket and a pair of panties. Clutching the fabric of the jacket and pulling it tight around her body, she felt a small cylindrical bulge in one of it's pockets. It wasn't her gun, she had left that on her bedside table, however it was something that was just as useful in a dark place like this, a small pen flashlight that she had started carrying ever since the NERV power outage.

Flicking the light on and surveying her surroundings, Misato got her first surprise. That was that there were no soldiers in the back with her. Of course, she hadn't seen any get in, but it seemed kind of foolish to leave a prisoner unguarded. Her second surprise came when she panned her flashlight into the front of her prison to see that Ranma was laying perfectly still. This may not seem too surprising, unless you note that by perfectly still, it was meant that he wasn't breathing. With a trembling hand, the Katsuragi woman reached out and touched the pigtailed martial artist's arm, which seemed to ripple as if it were a water balloon. She jerked back in surprise and fear, however when she did this, her hand smacked against one of Ranma's hands, only to cause a part of said martial artist's appendage to break off with a sickening sucking sound.

Misato backed away further, her hands coming to cover her mouth as she looked as though she were going to be sick.

HR

Asuka sat next to the unconscious form of Kaji, as he slept in a hospital bed at NERV. As She clutched the older man's hand, she heard the sound of the door to his hospital room opening. "Shinji, what are you doing here?" She asked, as she saw the brown haired boy entering with two glasses of water.

"I thought I'd bring you something to drink." Shinji said, offering one of the glasses to the German. Asuka nodded thankfully before taking it from Shinji's hand, beginning to drink. "So how is he?" The Ikari boy finally asked, as the silence got to him.

"Dr. Akagi says he should recover." Asuka said, looking at the large bandage that was on the right side of Kaji's chest. "Oh, one more thing."

"Hmm?" Shinji asked, taking a sip of his own water.

"If you ever tell anyone I said this I'll kill you." Asuka said, glaring at Shinji fiercely. "But thanks for helping me when I… You know." She said, blushing and turning away from Shinji guiltily.

"Oh, It was, erm, no problem Asuka." Shinji said, also looking away in embarrassment. As the second and fourth child had a blushing contest, Rei interrupted the moment by opening the door and sticking her head into the room.

"Shinji san, Asuka san, Commander Ikari wishes to talk with you now." She said, before withdrawing from the room again.

Grateful for the change of subject, Shinji and Asuka quickly nodded to each other in mutual agreement to 'forget' the last few minutes and proceeded out of the room and towards Shinji's father's office.

HR

The next day, Gendo Ikari tapped his fingers rapidly and forcefully against the reflective material of his desk. One of his staff, and one of the children, had been kidnapped and an "Innocent" person was badly wounded. Of course Gendo knew that Kaji Ryouji was an operative who reported to the few still independent parts of the Japanese government and defense forces, but he could quite easily pretend that he didn't. Of course, that wouldn't mean a damned thing if SEELE kept blocking his requests for a conference in order to ask what the hell was going on.

After Gendo had spent a few minutes fuming, a light on the edge of his desk blinked. "Finally." He muttered, as he tapped a few commands on his desktop keyboard. The surroundings of his office faded out, and twelve monoliths took their place. Gendo was tempted to start yelling immediately, however he wasn't stupid, and knew that SEELE had the power to blow NERV off of the map five times over, at least all accept for the EVAs.

"Ah, Gendo." Keel snorted, from the dark form of SEELE one.

"Chairman," Gendo started, deciding that tact was over-rated. "What in hell do you think you were doing taking my Operations officer and one of my pilots last night?"

"Ah, that was just a bit of a slap on the wrist." Keel said, cruelly." You forced our hand when you started to deviate from the plan with no regard for the consequences."

Gendo ground his teeth. "And how is reducing the fighting strength of NERV by an EVA a 'Slap on the wrist?'" He snapped.

"Oh, don't worry. EVA 01 will be functional again within a day, we will make sure of that. As for the slap on the wrist…" Keel said, as the space where his monolith was quickly faded to reveal a brown haired woman tied to a chair, looking like she'd seen better days. She glared defiantly at something that Gendo couldn't see, until the sound of a weapon being prepared to fire reverberated around the blackness. With a snarl of rage, the woman turned to Gendo.

"Help me, Gendo…" She said, before a guard came up from behind her and clubbed her over the head with the butt of his rifle.

"Y, Yui?" Gendo asked, in a state of near shock.

"Yes, we managed to… bring her back, you may say." Keel said, not even his monolith visible now. "Of course, if you do not conform to the plan she'll be lost again…"

Gendo reluctantly nodded. SEELE had somehow gotten a grip on him once again, and there wasn't much he could do about it for the moment. He just had to hope that they would slip up somehow.

HR

"Are you finished with playing sick jokes on Gendo yet?" Ranma spat, as she still sat tied to the chair.

"Yes, we are finished for now." Came the voice of the man, who Ranma was learning to truly despise already. He had grey hair, and wore some sort of white visor over his eyes.

"Fine then, Get that Gun away from her like you promised." Ranma snapped. The grey haired man made a small hand movement, and the black clad figure next to him lowered the weapon from Misato's head, the black haired woman sighing in relief.

As the two captives were taken back to their holding cells, Misato looked curiously over Ranma's now quite a bit older, approximately twenty four years old, body.

"And how did you manage to do that?" She asked, to distract herself from her current predicament.

"Just an ability that I never told you guys about." Ranma said, as the damned metallic bracelet on her wrist turned up it's intensity again. She wasn't sure how they had done it, but whoever had taken her and Misato captive had managed to cut off or at least mute her connection to Unit 01, as well as her Chi. For some reason, when the connection with the Mecha was completely cut off she fell unconscious, and her captors had used this fact to keep her in their prison for the last few hours.

Misato just shrugged. She was just glad that Ranma now had a pulse again, and she wasn't apparently disintegrating. Fortunately, Ranma's 'Injured' hand seemed to grow back before she had woken up. Unfortunately, it seemed to fall to Misato 'to get the two out of here given the pigtailed martial artist's current handicap, and she had no idea how to start going about it.

END.

Notes: What the HELL is happening to Ranma? How will SEELE get Unit 01 working? Will Misato pull off a Houdini escape? All this on the next hopefully less late episode of Angel of Light!

Sorry, I couldn't resist doing that. As for how Gendo didn't realize that it was just Ranma shape shifting, He doesn't know about that. In fact, no one does. You may recall that the only time Ranma ever does that, the cameras out front of Rei's Bio-lab 'mysteriously' frits out. Ranma tried to erase them, but since Yui wasn't exactly a master hacker like Either Dr. Akagi, He didn't do a very good job of hiding his footsteps…

Now does SEELE know? Well, that will be explained eventually.

Finally, I hope no one feels gypped that my big 100,000 word chapter is so ordinary… I know I do, but that's probably because I've got an Ego the size of Ranma's. Oh well, here's a trivia question for ya, at least!

Why is the idea of Ryoga being the soul of an EVA INCREADIBLY WRONG! This has both to do with Ryoga, and the EVAs themselves. Think about it? PS: I don't mean he's not the soul of Unit 03, I just mean that I was being REALLY mean when I did it to the poor guy. :D

* * *

**Chapter 39: Chapter 39 Revelations, Ranma Part I**

* * *

Sorry for the kind of inappropriate humor in the Kaoru meeting. I just finished listening to the Evangelion Drama track, and after hearing Gendo and Fuyutsuki singing "The beast," which by the way has no words, one cannot be too serious…

Evangelion Addition CD, Track 2 if I remember right. Listen to it, or at least get the script. Shin Sentai Evangelion for ever!

Chapter 39. Revelations, Ranma Saotome Part I.. AKA, An extremely confused Kaoru Nagisa.

Shinji, Asuka and Rei sat inside of a small black NERV Rental car, as Ritsuko Akagi sat in the front seat quickly navigating the vehicle through the nearly empty streets of Tokyo 3.

"Are you sure we need to get a new pilot?" Shinji asked, concerned. "I mean, Ranma won't be gone too long, right?"

Ritsuko sighed. "Shinji, I really don't know. We're trying to get Ranma and Misato back, but the group that has them isn't exactly easy to negotiate with." She said, skirting around the truth slightly. In reality, she knew exactly who had taken her closest friend prisoner, and she knew, or at least thought she knew, why they had done it.

"Shinji san, it is best to keep Unit 01 operative until Ranma comes back so that we can guard more completely against any future angel attacks." Rei said, logically. She had been acting cooler and more distant ever since Ranma's disappearance two days ago, and Shinji pitied her to some degree. He and Asuka had figured out that Rei and Ranma were getting together a while ago, and it seemed that the pigtailed pilot's disappearances were not being taken well by the blue haired girl.

"Well, we're here." Ritsuko said, breaking the silence that had fallen after Rei's last statement.

"Well, at least we'll have a pilot we can keep up with on the Sync tests." Asuka said, as she opened the car door on her side, immediately wincing as she saw an expression of anger flicker across Rei's face. "…Not that I'm glad the Engelkind's gone." She said, lamely. 'Man, I thought I got over that foot in mouth problem a while ago.' She thought, with a mild blush.

"Well, we should really go and meat the new pilot." Ritsuko interrupted, before Rei could do anything. With a nod, the three EVA pilots followed the researcher into Tokyo-3's main train station as a single NERV charter train pulled up to the platform.

"Is that it?" Shinji asked, pointing at the train.

"Yes, that's it. Normal train travel to Tokyo 3 was cut off a few days ago." Ritsuko responded, as she noticed one of the train's passenger compartment doors opening, to reveal a boy that had all three EVA Pilots gasping. The boy who was revealed by the opening of the doors looked almost like a male clone of Rei, accept for the lack of a blue tint to his light grey hair.

"Hello, I am Kaoru Nagisa." The boy said, walking up to the group.

"Rei, you sure you don't have a brother?" Asuka quipped, as the blue haired pilot shook her head.

"You must be Rei, and Shinji." Kaoru said, but looked uncertainly at Asuka. "But who are you?"

Asuka's eyes widened, and a vain pulsed on the side of her forehead. "You know who they are but don't know who I am?" She yelled, causing Kaoru to step back in surprise.

"N, No. I'm sorry…" Kaoru said, uncertainly. "Am I supposed to?"

"I," Asuka started, annoyed, "Am Asuka Langley. I'm the official pilot of Evangelion Unit 02!"

"But I thought…" Kaoru said, looking from Asuka to Ritsuko and back. Shrugging his shoulders, he bowed to Asuka. "I am truly sorry that I didn't recognize you. Erm, the picture in the file I was sent didn't do you justice!"

Asuka nodded. "Ah, I see." She said, grinning happily. She was really starting to like this guy.

Ritsuko cleared her throat, a small half smile on her face at Kaoru's predicament. "Well, we should probably get Kaoru's bags and set him up with a place to stay."

The pilots nodded, and proceeded to the train's baggage car.

HR

In Ranma and Misato's prison, the older woman was sitting in a small dark cell. She knew that Ranma was in the cell next to her, but she didn't know much beyond that. The things that had been happening for the past few days weren't making any sense. First, she and Ranma had been abducted, then Ranma had started doing things that really freaked her out. Of course, he had also told Misato that he couldn't use any of his abilities to get out for a reason he couldn't figure out, so NERV's strategic operations officer was currently going through many different strategies. Unfortunately, she was having no luck.

As she sat in her cell, Misato heard the sounds of footsteps echoing down the hallway outside. She sighed as she thought it was time for another session of Assault rifle meets Misato's forehead, but the footsteps passed her cell, stopping about a meter away. Another door was opened, and a body was dragged across the floor. "Is that Ranma?" Misato muttered, as she got to her feet and looked through the bars. Sure enough, the pigtailed martial artist was being dragged off down the hall, not very gently. What was worse was that his body was doing that thing it had been doing in the black truck on the first night they were grabbed, and he left a trail of Reddish orange liquid behind him. "That liquid, it looks just like…" Misato said, before her eyes widened. "That's LCL!"

HR

Later that day, Ranma awoke to the sensation of floating in some sort of liquid. Judging from the fact that he could breath, he assumed that it was LCL. Opening his eyes, he saw the Orange liquid, apparently with no charge running through it, all around him. "Where, where am I?" He stuttered, as the surroundings outside of his LCL tank began to come into focus. He was in some sort of lab room, similar in some ways to the place where he found Rei.

"Ah, you're finally awake Ireul." Came a voice, that of the grey haired man with the visor, who had just entered the room.

"Who?" Ranma asked, confused. For some reason, that name stirred something in his memory, but he didn't know what.

"I was speaking to you." The grey haired man said, calmly.

"Sorry, but my Name ain't Ireul or whatever you called me." Ranma growled, remembering what this man had recently done to Misato and Gendo. "Now what do ya want, and why am I here?"

The grey haired man smirked as he walked to a control panel on one side of the room, tapping a few commands into it. As he finished, Ranma felt a small shock through his body, and the orange liquid around him faded into clarity. "Oh, I just want to see what exactly went wrong with you." The grey haired man said, working on his console.

"What's wrong with me?" Ranma asked, as the electrical tingle quickly played across his entire body, and then began to increase in voltage. "What the hell are you doing?" Ranma asked, as the electrical current crackled across his skin, causing him pain. The grey haired man just ignored him as he continued his work for a few moments, before he spoke out of nowhere.

"Who are you?" He snapped, as he observed some data on his monitor.

"I'm Ranma." Ranma said, annoyed and slightly pained.

"No, you are not." The grey haired man said, calmly.

"All right, then who am I?" Ranma asked, a sense of anger building inside of him. He was pretty hard to get mad, but threatening the life of an innocent in order to manipulate someone else, even if it was Gendo, was one of the few things that could piss him off, and now this guy was being cryptic and shocking him on top of that.

"You are Ireul, angel of terror. It's really very unfortunate that you forgot that. You somehow managed to throw off all of our plans." The grey haired man said. "Oh, there were factors other than you, but we could have taken care of them, I'm sure."

"I told you before. NERV thinks I'm an angel, and I guess they're right considering what happened to me a few months ago." Ranma started, his voice hitching at the thought of what he'd done to Rei, "But the Name's Ranma Ikari and…" He stopped, looking confused. His first name had come out fine, but for some reason Yui's family name had slipped out instead of his own. Shaking his head, he was about to speak again when the grey haired man interrupted him.

"No, you aren't Ranma. He died in 1992 when his idiotic father caused his son to suffer critical blood loss, and brain damage." He then sighed. "It was really so sickening how he jumped at a new 'miracle cure' only after we told him that we would give it to him for free." The grey haired man snorted in disgust. "Men like him make me wonder why I even bother to try and advance the state of humanity."

Ranma stared in dumb shock. Yet another thing could be attributed to his father. His curse, the engagements, the Neko-Ken, which he now realized was the incident the grey haired man had alluded to, and now even his status as an angel were ALL his father's fault. With a bitter laugh, he slumped his head back until it hit the back of the tube.

"Aren't you going to get angry with me, accuse me of lying?" The grey haired man asked, curiously.

Ranma just laughed again. "Nah, my father'd probably do that." He conceded.

Internally, the grey haired man, also known as Chairman Keel, cursed. He would have to use other means to make the boy experience a strong negative emotion to complete the test. He had already gotten a normal baseline, but he needed a strong emotional response to supplement it and he really doubted that he could get happiness out of the boy at the moment.

HR

Kaoru Nagisa sat in a small room, apparently once owned by Rei Ayanami. Her old bed was still here, and he had set his pack next to it. Now that everyone was gone, he had time to think. "This isn't going the way it is supposed to." He muttered, reaching into his bag and producing a small picture. It was of Shinji Ikari, but a little younger and seemingly a lot sadder. True, the younger Ikari didn't exactly look like the happiest person on the planet at the moment, but he had acted much differently on the drive to Kaoru's new apartment than expected. Somehow, he didn't seem at all the way Kaoru had imagined him to be, how they had said he would be. With a soft sigh, the angelic boy lay down on his bed and gazed up at the ceiling of his room. The thing that REALLY didn't add up was the pilot he was here to replace. He hadn't been told much about him, not to mention the girl who he was supposed to replace in the first place. Yes, things were going far too differently for him to comprehend, and he was very apprehensive about this fact..

HR

At the Katsuragi household, Asuka and Shinji looked in astonishment at the brown haired man who sat at the kitchen table, sipping from what looked like a cup of tea.

"Kaji san?" Asuka asked. "I thought you were still in the hospital. Are you all right?"

The man smiled a little weakly. "Yeah, I'll be fine. What, did you think a bullet could stop me?" He asked, with his traditional rakish grin dominating his face.

Asuka shook her head but Shinji just looked at him in disbelief. "Dr. Akagi said the bullet missed a major artery by less than a millimeter! "

"I didn't say I was indestructible, just damned lucky." Kaji said, taking another sip from his cup of tea. "And to answer the question that I know at least one of you wants to ask, I've been assigned as a temporary guardian for the two of you until Misato gets back."

"You're replacing Misato?" Shinji asked, his eyes downcast. Kaji stood up from the table, wincing a bit, and walked over to the young Ikari.

"Don't worry Shinji. I'm only here as a TEMPORARY replacement. Misato's just too annoying to die." He said, with an assurance that he didn't really feel himself.

Shinji just looked up to him and nodded, while Asuka looked back and forth between the two, confused.

HR

The next day, Asuka slammed her locker door angrily, quickly checking to make sure that Rei wasn't in the room before bursting out. "Not another one!" She yelled, before slumping to the bench. It seemed that this Kaoru guy had as annoyingly high a sync rate as the Engelkind. Of course, when she had called him Engelkind two he had gone pale for some reason and quickly ran in the other direction. "Just my luck. He Syncs as well as Engelkind and has skin as thin as Shinji's." She muttered, stomping out of the room and slamming the door. Shinji rubbed his forehead on the men's side of the barrier.

HR

In another part of NERV, Kaoru sighed in relief. The angry redhead was gone. She had almost given him a heart attack when she had referred to him as Engelkind two. He didn't know what the two was about, but he knew enough German to decipher what the name meant, and wondered how they had found out so quickly. Maybe he shouldn't have shown off by getting an eighty point Sync rate on his first Sync test, but he did have to see what he was working with, since it wasn't Unit 02 but Unit 01. Of course, given what he knew Unit 01 was made of, it was a wonder that he hadn't caused an explosion just by touching it.

As he prepared to head to the change room, in hopes that the redhead was gone and he could change out of his plug suit, Kaoru heard a voice calling his name. "Kaoru san."

"Hmm?" Kaoru asked, turning to see the blue haired pilot, one who was in a sense his half sister, walking up to him.

"Yes, Ayanami san?" He asked, curiously. Internally he was also concerned, wondering if that redhead had told the whole staff of NERV of what he was.

"Dr. Akagi and Commander Ikari wish to speak with you." Rei said, as she pointed Kaoru towards Gendo's office.

"Thank you Ayanami san." Kaoru said, wondering why he hadn't just been paged and heading towards the office. As he entered, he saw NERV's commanding officer sitting behind a desk, with Sub-commander Fuyutsuki standing on one side and Dr. Akagi on the other.

"Hello Mr. Nagisa." Gendo said, as the angel stood in front of his desk.

"What can I do for you sir?" Kaoru asked, looking around for the nearest exit in case things went wrong.

"Did you know that you are an angel?" Gendo said, bluntly. Kaoru stopped, his mouth gaping in shock.

"D, did I know?" He asked, in a quavering voice.

Ritsuko shook her head. "From that reaction, I assume that you didn't." She said, looking at him sympathetically.

Kaoru looked between Gendo and Ritsuko, his mind slipping a few gears. They were staring at him perfectly calmly, asking if he knew that he was an angel. There were guards outside the room, and appropriate security precautions, but this was NOT how he had expected this to go. "N… No. I didn't know." He said, deciding to cover his tracks the best way he could. "You're telling me that I am an angel?" He let a small amount of anger enter his voice at this point, hoping that his acting skill was up to par.

"Is there something about that Evangelion that attracts Angelic pilots?" Fuyutsuki asked, in a low enough voice that he thought no one could hear it.

"Yes, I'm afraid your Genetic signature almost exactly matches another pilot of ours who is an angel. We aren't sure why you two appeared, maybe you're just a normal human with a similar standard variance to that of an Angel, but we can't be too sure." Ritsuko explained, sympathetically. "We just have a request that you do not enter any level beyond G-3, and your standing orders for a power outage are to get as far away from the Geofront as physically possible."

Kaoru looked from Ritsuko to Gendo and then to Fuyutsuki, seeing that all three of them were perfectly calm about this. He couldn't believe this. They found an angel in their midst, and he didn't even know how they had managed to do that so quickly, and they were just telling him not to go beyond a certain level. "Shouldn't you be pulling me off of the EVA series with this knowledge?" He wondered, then winced for giving them the idea. The current course of events was some of the best luck he could possibly hope for, and he had just said something that could screw it up.

"No." Gendo said, and then elaborated. "The pilot that you are substituting for was also an angel, and showed extreme aptitude for piloting Unit 01. You will be very useful to the defense of Tokyo 3, assuming that you still wish to participate."

Kaoru nodded. "Yessir, thank you." He said, and then looked towards the door. "Can I go now?"

Gendo nodded, and the very confused angel walked out of the room, stunned.

End.

NOTES;

My god… this was supposed to be a very serious chapter, but I guess it failed miserably in that. Well, I hope it's enjoyable at least. It explains how Ranma became an angel, and introduces one extremely off-balance angel of free will. Now the question you have to ask is, will he live or die?

Questions:

Why did Gendo and Ritsuko accept Kaoru so easily?

Simple. Due to Ranma before him. While Gendo may suspect something due to his deeper knowledge of SEELE, he's equally likely to suspect that they sent Kaoru in ignorant of what he was, so that what happened to Ranma in chapter 22-23 would happen to him. Not to mention, Ranma's advantages as a pilot can't be sneezed at, and when you're dealing with saving the world, anything goes.

Why did Keel tell all to Ranma?

Unlike most evil guys, Keel had a reason to tell Ranma what he did. Why? He was trying to get Ranma to feel a strong emotion of some sort. He can't just kill Misato or something, because he needs her to make Ranma do what he wants to hold Gendo. As to why he wants Ranma to feel strong emotion? You may or may not find out.

PS: I put "END" at the end of my chapters to scare people. :D

Well, till next time. Read and review!

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**Chapter 40: Chapter 40 Revelations, Ranma Part II**

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This chapter kinda follows part of two different series of events. Scene changes will be often, and scenes kinda short. Sorry about that.

The Evangelion series can have two titles per episode, why can't I:D

Chapter 40, Revelations, Ranma part II, or The Final Angel, part I.

Kaji woke in her bed, but she wasn't there. With a sigh, he rolled over to his uninjured side, and his eyes rested on the bedside table, with the NERV standard issue handgun laying there. With a groan of pain, he sat up, squinting at the soft light of dawn that peaked through the window. Reaching to the bedside table, his hand rapped around the butt of the gun and picked it up, hefting it's weight in his hand.

HR

Shinji, wake up!" Asuka yelled, causing the fourth child to snap his eyes open and shoot up in his bed, almost cracking his skull off of that of the German.

"What… what is it Asuka?" He asked, rubbing his eyes and squinting at the redhead that was standing above him.

"It's Kaji, he's gone." Asuka explained, as she left Shinji's room, deciding to search the apartment again, in the vein hope that she'd somehow missed him somewhere.

Slowly, his senses not quite clear, Shinji rose from his bed and began to get dressed. Kaji was a lot older than he was, and certainly could take care of himself, even when injured. Walking into the living room, he saw that Asuka was pacing, looking worried.

"I'm sure he's fine." Shinji said, as he put a hand on Asuka's shoulder.

":What do you know Shinji? He's got a still healing gunshot wound, he shouldn't be running around!" Asuka yelled, causing the fourth child to back up a little, accidentally stumbling and falling onto the couch. As Shinji pushed himself to his feet, he felt something shift under one of his hands and looked down to see a small piece of paper. "What's that?" Asuka asked, hearing the sound of the paper rustling.

Shinji shrugged, as he picked the note up in both hands and read it over. "She's too annoying to die, and I'm too stubborn to let her."

"I think I know where Kaji is." Shinji said, now starting to become as worried as Asuka. "I think he went to find Misato."

HR

"Mr. Ryouji's gone where?" Gendo asked, his hands steepled in front of his face, as he looked at Ritsuko incredulously.

"The children think he's gone to find Misato." She responded, finding it hard to believe herself. "Shinji found a note that seems to indicate that."

"I see." Gendo said, nodding. "Well, this makes things a little more complex."

"What do you mean, commander?" Ritsuko asked, confused.

"Fuyutsuki and I are to report to the UN for a status update." Gendo said, resigned. "I was planning to seed Command to Mr. Ryouji, however it appears he's not here to take it."

"But sir, there isn't a real chain of command below Kaji." Ritsuko said, uncertainly.

"Yes there is, Doctor." Gendo said, suddenly. "You will take command of the Geofront and all anti-angel operations while Sub-commander Fuyutsuki and I are away. Is that understood?"

"But shouldn't you stay here at a time like this, I mean we are under staffed." Ritsuko stuttered, her eyes darting around the office nervously.

"I can't. This meeting is mandatory, unfortunately." Gendo said, as he stood. "I'm sure that the Geofront will be safe in your hands for one day, Ritsuko." He continued, walking out of the room with a contemplative look on his face. If Ritsuko hadn't been stunned into immobility, she may have noticed that he wasn't heading for the exit of the building.

For some reason, the only thing that Ritsuko could concentrate on was that Gendo had called her by her first name for the first time, ever.

HR

Later that morning, Shinji took his plugsuit off of a hook in the change room, Kaoru doing the same nearby. "I wonder what was wrong with Dr. Akagi today." He said, trying to make conversation with the new pilot.

"Was she acting oddly?" Kaoru asked, as he stripped off his clothing to put on his plugsuit, a black one with slightly lighter grey highlights. He noticed that there was a third suit on the men's side of the change room, this one colored black with a blue front plate and highlights.

"She's just seemed, I don't know…" Shinji trailed off, unsure. "She's seemed really jumpy for the past few weeks."

"I wouldn't know." Kaoru said, looking at Shinji from the corner of his eye. "I haven't been here for very long."

"Yeah, you've only been here since Ranma disappeared." Shinji said, looking at the unused plugsuit.

"This Ranma," Kaoru said, going off onto another topic. "Was he really an angel?"

"Well, I guess so." Shinji said, tentatively. "He did act like one once, but he snapped himself out of it." He winced at the memory of getting pounded by Ranma while he was in that state. Kaoru just looked vaguely troubled as he finished putting on his plugsuit, followed by Shinji.

HR

"All right, just another Sync test today. This time we'll fully connect you with the EVAs. Understand?" Ritsuko asked, as the four children stood in the testing area.

"It's not like we haven't done this before, Dr. Akagi." Asuka complained, impatiently.

"Well one of you hasn't done it before, remember Asuka?" Ritsuko said, pointing to Kaoru who seemed embarrassed by the attention.

"Oh right, Engelkind's replacement over there." Asuka said, dismissively. Within four seconds, her head was jolted back as Rei slapped her hard across the cheek. She had barely even seen the blue haired girl move, and she was now directly in front of her.

"Ranma will come back, and does not need a replacement." Rei said, levelly. "Do you understand?"

Asuka gaped as Rei stood in front of her, her eyes unblinking. "Rei, I didn't mean…"

"Is that understood?" Rei asked again, this time with more emphasis.

"Y, yes… I understand." The redhead said, backing away from the blue haired girl and actually looking a little unnerved.

"Are you two done yet?" Ritsuko snapped, as she rubbed her forehead.

"We are done." Rei said, as she returned to her place standing next to Shinji, with Asuka on his other side. "Should we begin the tests now?"

Ritsuko just nodded shortly.

HR

Kaoru sat in the entry plug of Evangelion unit 01, his hands resting on it's manipulators as he let his mind drift, seeking out the Soul, the power source that made the machine work. As he did so, he found a surprise that he hadn't been expecting. The EVA had two different power sources, not one. He knew that this Evangelion had taken an S2 organ from the fourteenth angel, however there was a second S2 organ, seemingly rapped around the first like a blanket.

Intrigued, Kaoru looked deeper into the mysterious core of Evangelion 01. Like Unit 02's was supposed to be, Unit 01's soul was hidden away somewhere, and he was kind of curious to know where. Tracing a tiny stream of energy that exited the mecha's main core, he quickly felt a sense of sadness, and anticipation. The one linked to the main core was waiting, she was waiting because he promised that he'd come back…

Kaoru didn't know who that was, but he quickly pulled himself back as he was obviously invading someone else's private thoughts.

Tracking another stream of energy, this one much stronger, that flowed from the Evangelion's secondary core, Kaoru came upon a block of some sort in the way. He tried to push past it, however just as he did it gave way, and he was feeling excruciating pain. The electric current flowed over his skin, scorching bits and pieces of it as his enhanced healing fought to keep up with the damage, the blurred form of the man, wait, that was Chairman Keel, behind the glass in front of him, or was he behind glass? With a soft gasp of suppressed pain, Kaoru pulled himself back to hear the concerned voice of one of Dr. Akagi's assistants, he believed her name was Lt. Ibuki, coming over his com. Line. "Kaoru, are you all right? Please respond."

"I, I'm fine." Kaoru said, but he truly felt pity for whoever was attached to the EVA's second power source. More importantly, he wondered why Chairman Keel, who had always told him that he wanted to evolve Humanity, was doing that to someone.

HR

Ranma's body trembled as he used the soul of ice technique to keep from reacting in any other way, while the power around him tried to tear him to pieces. This had started mildly enough yesterday, when this guy, something inside of his head whispered that his name was Keel, started to talk to him. In fact, Keel had given Ranma a few pretty useful pieces of information, apparently trying to get him to show some emotion. Ranma had quickly picked up on this, and just to thwart the bastard, had used the ancient Amazon fighting technique to keep himself from reacting, no matter what happened.

Of course, physical stimuli like what he was being exposed to now didn't really get much help from the mental focus technique, and he desperately wanted to cry out. Finally, after having held himself back for a day and a half, Ranma broke and let out a loud scream, his body continuing to convulse with the rapid discharges of electricity that Keel had been pumping into his LCL filled tube.

Keel flicked off a switch on the console where he sat, and smiled at Ranma. "There Ireul, was that so hard to do?" He asked, as he keyed in another sequence of commands and the tube opened, allowing Ranma to fall limply to the floor. A guard came into the room a moment after this, and Keel waved him over to Ranma's slumped form. "Take him back to his cell." He said, before turning to his keyboard and pulling up sensor readings of the Neural spike he had wanted to record.

As Ranma faded in and out of consciousness while being pulled down halls, he noticed that Keel had forgotten to turn the bracelet on his wrist back up. He had found out what that was, as well. Keel had called it an "Anti AT Field," and it apparently blocked any transmission of life energy through it... Not to mention causing unpleasant side-effects to anyone wearing it. Apparently, if he'd been human, Ranma would have melted into a puddle of LCL long ago.

Seeing Misato looking at him from inside of her cell, Ranma grinned at her raggedly before being tossed into his own.

HR

In Misato's cell, The black haired woman jerked as she heard a faint scream from down the hall. She couldn't make it out well enough to know for sure, but it sounded a little like Ranma. She had been getting worried about the EVA pilot since he had been dragged away yesterday, trailing the stream of LCL. Truthfully, even a scream from him was good news at the moment, as she wasn't sure if he was alive or dead.

A few moments later, Misato wished she could retract that last thought, as the burnt, battered and beaten form of Ranma was dragged down the hall. He seemed to be healing from the wounds inflicted on him at a fantastic pace, which meant that they had been worse just a few minutes before. There was just barely enough of his tattered boxer shorts left to protect modesty, and she was amazed that they had survived. Of course, the T-shirt that he had been wearing when he was captured was also half gone, and Misato wasn't sure it would cover his female form's modesty very well.

Shaking her head violently, Misato chided herself for thinking of useless things at a time like this, and made a decision. Ranma looked half dead, and could probably easily have died in the last day, and her job was to protect the children. Deciding to put her rather impulsive plan into action, Misato banged on the door of her cell as Ranma's cell door was shut.

"Wadda you want?" The guard asked, as he walked up to Misato's cell.

Misato subtly glanced around the guard she was talking to, and only saw one other. "I've got to use the toilet." She said, fully aware of how ridiculous this sounded. In all actuality, it was true. She had been locked up in here for two days now, and she didn't know she could hold it for as long as she was now.

The one guard looked at the other and shrugged. Truthfully, they weren't exactly used to holding prisoners. SEELE's special forces were normally sent out on "Erasure" missions, not retrieval ones.

"Will you go with her?" The guard that was standing next to Ranma's cell asked, as Misato's guard sighed. Opening the door, he pulled her out roughly.

"Go." He said, leveling his heavy pistol at her back. Misato walked without question, her escort telling her where to turn and what to do. Once the two were in an empty stretch of corridor, NERV's Strategic operations officer shoved herself back against her escort, causing his gun to get bumped mostly out of the way before he fired, sending a bullet through the outside edge of her torso.

Hissing in pain, Misato recovered from her shove, caught the guard in the chin with a hard right hook and grabbed his gun from his stunned hand in about six seconds, before calmly putting his own gun beneath his chin and pulling the trigger. Wincing at the noise that the un-silenced weapon made as its shot discharged, Misato began running towards the holding cells, to get Ranma.

HR

Back at the Geofront, Ritsuko gazed out over the four Evangelions, each with a pilot in it's entry plug. So far, her first day in command of NERV had gone relatively routinely, and this gave her the ultimate proof that Gendo and the others didn't know of her betrayal.

"Have we got readings on all four pilots?" She asked, turning to Maya.

"Yes, Ma'am." Maya said, as she brought up the sets of readings on her screen. "Shinji's up four points, Rei's up five and Asuka's up five as well. Aside from some strange variation at the start of his test, Kaoru's holding steady at eighty five." She reported, efficiently.

Ritsuko nodded absently. "Good. Get the pilots out…" She started, before a P.A. announcement from Central Dogma stopped her cold.

"This is central Dogma. We have detected a blue pattern, repeat, we have detected a blue pattern." Came Aoba's voice, saying what Ritsuko least wanted to hear. As her face went pale, she had to think that there must be a god somewhere laughing their ass off, most likely Adam.

END.

Ah, Misato's on the move, Kaoru's gathering information and Ritsuko's having the "New employee's worst nightmare." God's in his heaven, All's right with the world!

Please, read and review. Approximately only 4 chapters left till the BIG ONE!

* * *

**Chapter 41: Chapter 41 The Final Angel part II**

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Notes: FINALLY! I UPDATE! Anyways, enough with the N00bish capitalization and over-punctuation. Look, I've got MANY good reasons why I haven't updated, including the fact that I was on vacation most of the summer, and when I got back home my computer crashed. I haven't even written a single letter of fanfiction since my last update, and I'm sorry for that. Also, I promised that this fic was NOT dead, and it's not… despite how many of you may wish otherwise. Predicted chapter outline, After "Final Angel," there will be a rap-up chapter or two, followed by death and rebirth. There may or may not be a "Season 2" after D&R depending on how my muse ends it.

PS: Parts of this chapter are SUPPOSED to be that damned confusing. :D

PPS: Sorry for double post, FFN doesn't like TXT files for some reason.

Warning, this may suck as it's the first thing I've written in a scarily long time and it may take a while to get back into the swing of things. Thank you and try to enjoy the reading.

Chapter 41, The final angel, part II.

Kaji looked at the rundown looking office building on the outskirts of Tokyo-2, hefting Misato's side-arm in one hand. "Well, looks like it's show time." He muttered, patting one of his suit jacket's pockets, in which rested something small and black, and only usable if his mission succeeded. He casually slipped the NERV issue weapon into a holster under his jacket, marching through the front door, and running a key card through a slot next to an elevator. Crossing his fingers, he heard the soft ping of the lock accepting his access card, and stepped into the opening doors.

HR

In the bowels of the SEELE base, Misato tiptoed around a corner, carefully raising the weapon of the guard who's head she had ventilated not more than five minutes earlier. She'd found a silencer in the man's pocket, although what use it would be on a forty five caliber heavy pistol, she didn't know. Sighting in on the guard who was in front of Ranma's cell door, she squeezed the trigger, and to her surprise the report of the gun was silenced quite effectively as the man slumped to the ground. Running into the middle of the corridor, she dug around the guard's dead body, finding a key card that would open the cell doors.

As the door to Ranma's cell slid open, Misato noticed that the young EVA pilot was slumped in a corner, with his eyes closed. Leaning over him, she shook him by the shoulder. There was no strange rippling of his body this time, and his breathing was very regular, but as she lifted his head she noticed that his eyes were open and staring into space. "What the hell?" She muttered, as the pilot's lips began moving, as if he were mouthing something to himself. Unfortunately, she wasn't a lip reader so she just shook his shoulder more forcefully. "Come on, wake up we have to get out of here!" She growled, but got no response. Sighing in annoyance, she slung one of Ranma's arms over her shoulder and began to carry him out. "You're heavy, you know that?" she muttered, exiting his cell and starting down the hall.

HR

Meanwhile, in Tokyo-3, the four Evangelion units had reached the surface, and taken offensive positions. Inside of Unit 01, Kaoru was studying his opponent carefully. The angel was a large glowing loop of pure energy, that seemed to alternate between a solid line and a double helix pattern. SEELE had actually given him a bit of information about the angels who had come before him, this one being the sixteenth. Unfortunately, they hadn't told him anything about how to destroy one, or even that he was supposed to. In fact, some part of him even flinched at the thought of taking up arms against what was pretty much a brother to him, however it had to be done. Any doubt about fighting the angel was quickly removed as the loop disconnected and formed a solid line, the end lashing out, striking at Unit 01 first thing. Kaoru dodged wildly, and Unit 02 ran in front of him, grabbing the angel by one end and flinging it away.

"Hmph, the new guy certainly isn't as good a combat pilot as the Engelkind, never mind me." Asuka gloated, as she pulled a rifle from a storage cache near where Kaoru's dodge had landed him, shooting at the angel.

Rei's voice came over the pilots' communication channel, seeming to reprove. "Please keep on task, Asuka-san."

The redhead grumbled, but paid more attention to the angel, aiming her weapon and kicking up a cloud of dust from it's bullet impacts. Unfortunately, none of the bullets seemed to have hit the angel as it whipped it's way out of the way of each shot. As she began getting frustrated with her inability to hit the target, Asuka dropped the EVA sized machinegun, pulling her progressive knife and charging forward.

"Hey Asuka, watch out!" Shinji said, as he, in unit 03 noticed something that Asuka was too annoyed to see. The angel was coiling for a strike. Unfortunately, the German didn't seem to hear Shinji's warning, and continued her charge, only being saved by a few inches as the fourth child's machine pushed her out of the way of getting speared by the enemy.

HR

In central dogma, Ritsuko groaned. This was NOT the time to find out that the EVA pilots couldn't work very well as a team. Of course, Kaoru had just joined three days ago, and Neither Asuka nor Shinji had really worked closely with Rei very often. "Maya, remind me to tell Misato to run the children through team exercises after this…" she said, only remembering that the strategic operations officer was missing after she had made the statement.

"Yes Ma'am." Maya said, with a smile as she looked back at her sempai. "I'll tell her as soon as she comes back."

Ritsuko smiled back, until she saw another example of the EVA pilots' current knack for getting in each others' way. "Get me a channel to all of the pilots." She growled, fervently wishing that Gendo or Fuyutsuki were here to deal with this problem. When Hyuga nodded to indicate that the line was open, she began to speak. "What the hell are you doing out there? You're trying to fight the angel all at once and getting in each other's way! Asuka, Kaoru, pull back. Leave Shinji and Rei to handle the angel.

Kaoru just acknowledged the order, but Asuka had something to say. "Shinji and Rei? Why not me?" She asked, annoyed.

"Because I need an experienced EVA pilot in reserve in case something goes wrong." Ritsuko said, before inspiration struck. "And you're the second most qualified after Rei." That wasn't strictly true, but maybe a little ego stroking would get the German playing as part of the team.

"Right, I got it." Asuka said, seeming a lot more cheerful.

Ritsuko rubbed her temples. "Misato, come back soon." She muttered, hopefully.

HR

Misato turned down another dead end hallway, getting just a bit desperate. She'd been wandering around this place without a map for ten minutes, and she got hopelessly lost in NERV WITH a map in less time. Plus, the intruder alarms had gone off about three minutes ago, and she thought she had passed that door on her left at least twice by now. Turning a corner, she came to a screeching halt, the dead weight of Ranma over her shoulder almost tipping her over as she saw two guards pointing their guns at her. She turned around and began to run the other way, only to find two more guards having just come around the far corner. "Oh shit." She muttered, as she looked from one end to the other.

"Drop the gun and the boy and put your hands up." One of the guards that had cut her off said, leveling his weapon at her. She was about to comply when she heard the rapid sound of an automatic pistol discharging from behind her. Automatically, she brought up her heavy pistol and fired while dodging into an alcove in the hall. She could have sworn that a bullet had flown right by her head, tearing off a few hairs, but that wasn't important at the moment. Hearing more gunshots, she peaked out to see that there was one man standing over the dead bodies of two of the guards, and she knew that her quickly snapped off shots had hit at least one of the other two. Whipping around, she quickly noticed that the other one was down as well.

"What a co-incidence meeting you here." Came a smooth voice, from the mysterious newcomer.

"Kaji?" Misato asked, looking astonished.

"To the rescue," the man answered, walking towards Misato. "So I see you got out without me."

"Forget that, do you know how to get out of here?" She asked, distinctly relieved.

"That's one great welcome for your knight in shining armor." Kaji grumbled, before nodding. "Come on, the exit's this way." Misato nodded, following quickly.

HR

Back on the battlefield, Ritsuko's imposition of an actual strategy seemed to be working, as the two EVA pilots who were still in battle began to move more smoothly, not having to worry about stepping around each other. Rei came in with a sweeping slash with her prog knife, taught to her by Ranma in one of their martial arts lessons, but her knife blade seemed to just slide through the angel's body as if it weren't there. "Akagi san, it would appear that this angel is not effected by physical blows." She said, uncertainly. "Is there any other way to incapacitate it?"

"We're looking for one, Rei. Just try and keep it distracted until we find it." Ritsuko reassured, from the control room. Rei acknowledged, and she and Shinji continued to stall the angel for a while longer, before the inevitable happened and the white energy whip charged at Shinji, smashing it's way through his hastily erected AT field.

The younger Ikari gasped in surprise, as the torso of his EVA near its left shoulder, where the angel had penetrated began to throb with pain. He reached up with his arm, grabbing a hold of the semi-solid light of the angel's body and trying to tug it out, but it wouldn't come loose. "Someone, help!" He yelled, his EVA starting to flail around as the angel began to infect it's arm.

Meanwhile, in Unit 01, Kaoru watched dispassionately as his two fellow pilots fought the sixteenth angel. Truthfully, he was relieved that he had been instructed to pull back, allowing the moral dilemma of whether he should fight a fellow angel or not to become less of an immediate concern. It was when the Angel's whip like body smashed into Unit 03 that he first noticed the pulse that came from his EVA's core. It had been there, like a background noise, ever since he had first entered the Machine, but it seemed to spike when the fourth child was in danger. Without warning, a thought flew through Kaoru's head. 'Why aren't you helping him?' It was soft, yet insistent, and almost seemed like it wasn't Kaoru's own mind thinking it. Responding almost automatically, he muttered "I was ordered to pull back. If he gets into trouble, I will help him."

"What was that Engelkind the second, are you talking to yourself now?" Came Asuka's slightly annoyed voice, from EVA unit 02.

"It… it was nothing, don't worry about it Asuka-san." Kaoru said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

HR

As Misato and Kaji came to the front entrance of SEELE headquarters, the major let off a sigh of relief. Kaji had had the forethought to bring her car, wherever they were. She wasn't really sure where this place was, but judging from the amount of time that had been spent to drive there, it was pretty far from her apartment, or even Tokyo 3, and carrying the catatonic form of Ranma all the way back on foot, even with Kaji's help, wasn't her idea of fun. As the two lay the pigtailed boy in the car's back seat, Misato heard him mutter "Why aren't you helping him?" in a soft voice.

"What was that?" She asked, leaning closer, however the pigtailed boy had stopped speaking by this point.

"Is there something the matter, Misato?" Kaji asked, looking at her worriedly. "We really have to get out of here now."

"No, nothing's wrong." She said, before climbing into the driver's seat and turning the key that was left in the ignition. "Come on, let's go!" Kaji nodded, sitting in the passenger seat right as Misato slammed down the accelerator.

"Now I remember why I hate it when she drives." The man muttered, his face turning green as the car took an insanely tight turn around a corner.

HR

Ranma was confused. He had passed out soon after the torture that had been inflicted upon him by chairman Keel had ended, but he was now in some sort of hazy grey void. It looked somehow familiar, as if he'd seen it before. As he floated through the mist, his memory suddenly supplied precisely when he had seen this same view before. It had been when he had been absorbed by unit 01 during the fourteenth angel battle. Had it happened again? Trying to find a light, a way out as he had the first time, the pigtailed pilot found something. It felt like a second Chi inside the EVA, much as Yui's had, but this one wasn't absorbed by the Unit, merely synchronized with it.

Struggling towards the other Chi signature, Ranma's fog filled world seemed to begin to fade into real, sharp lines. The lines of Tokyo 3, and the view of Shinji and Rei battling against some sort of snake or whip of light that dodged or was unaffected by almost every attack they landed. He was seeing the battle from the perspective of Unit 01… or was he Unit 01 itself? This was too confusing. His body had even seemed to solidify around him, the forty five meter tall, metal incased form of the EVA itself, with the entry plug lodged at the back of his neck. The part of him that had been Yui vaguely recalled a similar sensation from the very few times that she had been lucid while inside of the EVA, and upon testing, Ranma found that just like Yui, he couldn't make his body move and the pilot in the entry plug, whoever he or she may be, was in full control.

Ranma was about to try and see who precisely was controlling the EVA, when he saw the whip like angel impale Unit 03's left side. "Why aren't you helping him?" He asked, annoyed.

The reply came, seemingly ringing in Ranma's own head. "I was ordered to pull back. If he gets into trouble, I will help him."

The pigtailed martial artist grudgingly acknowledged the voice in his head. If there was some sort of plan for dealing with this angel, that seemed to definitely need one, diving in to the middle of the fight when Shinji didn't look all that hurt would make very little sense. He distantly noted that Asuka had made some derogatory comment about a second Engelkind and wondered if she was just commenting on a second pilot for Unit 01, or if the term meant something more. All of these thoughts were driven from his mind as he saw Rei attempting to assist Shinji by pulling the Angel out of his EVA's body, only to get impaled herself. Now both of the people Ranma truly cared about were in danger.

"Help them, now." He growled, adamantly, wishing he could glare at the pilot of Unit 01. When the EVA made no move, he said it more vehemently. "Help them now!"

HR

Kaoru flinched at the volume of the voice in his head. He could now definitely confirm that that was NOT one of his own thoughts, but where had it come from? Stretching out the senses that allowed him to bond with Evangelion units, he felt that Unit 01's soul had returned to it's body, somehow, and it was strong. Just as the S2 core seemed to be, the soul was powerful enough to actually be two, and it was worried. "Dr. Akagi?" He said, tentatively.

"What is it Kaoru?" Ritsuko's clipped voice came over the com System, she and her team having obviously been trying to find a way to get the angel to release it's grip on Units 00 and 03.

"I believe that Unit 01… wishes to join the battle, ma'am." The seventeenth angel said, uncertainly. Admittedly, this was getting even stranger than he had thought it could, and after the events since he had gotten to Tokyo 3 that was saying something.

"Unit 01 wants…" Ritsuko muttered, before growling. "No. Keep yourself and Asuka out of the battle for the time being." She snapped, though she was beginning to think that ordering the other two EVAs into combat was a good idea. Just then, Rei's voice came over the system.

"Dr. Akagi, I believe that I have an idea." The first child said, calmly.

"Go ahead Rei, we seem to be all out of them up here." Ritsuko said, resignedly.

"If I invert Unit 00's AT field, I may be able to pull the angel into it and away from Shinji." Rei began, but was interrupted.

"But that'll cause a lot of contamination…" Aoba warned, concerned.

"When the angel is caught within my AT field, I will detonate the N2 self destruct device that was built into all of the EVAs, destroying it and Unit 00." Rei continued, coolly.

"But that'll kill you!" Shinji, who sounded to be strained from the pain of the angel who was trying to infect his EVA, and through it himself, said.

"My death does not matter, there are replacements." Rei said, softly. She knew that Ranma had said that she was special, and she had even started to believe it, however Ranma was gone now and there were other clones to take her place should she die.

Just as Ritsuko was about to order Rei not to do it, Everyone heard a panicked cry from Kaoru. "What… Dr. Akagi, Unit 01 has… it just completely removed me from synchronization and won't respond to commands!" About five seconds after that was said, Unit 01 charged into the angel who was connecting Shinji and Rei, forcibly pulling it out of both of their EVAs.

HR

As Ranma, somehow inside of Unit 01, heard Rei's plan he began to get desperate. First both Shinji and Rei had been attacked, and now Rei was planning to blow herself up in order to destroy the angel. The one who was in control of the EVA was just standing there, following orders. Speaking of which he was going to pound Ritsuko when this battle was over, even if he didn't quite know how he had gotten into it in the first place. Desperately, the pigtailed martial artist threw everything he had into moving the EVA's body… and it happened. With an almost audible snap, the EVA's pilot was pushed out of Synchronization and the Mecha went berserk, for the first time with a rational and human, if VERY pissed, mind in control…

TO BE CONTINUED!

Notes: Misato and Kaji's escape was so easy due to Kaji having made preparations before he invaded. Now, what those are I'll leave up to your imaginations. I was gunna put them in but some of them were too evil.

* * *

**Chapter 42: Chapter 42 The Final Angel Part III**

* * *

HELLO! Man this was hard to write… the perspectives, especially for Ranma inside of Unit 01, were damned hard to get straight. I hope it's at least sorta good.

Now, I'm gunna go to sleep, for I have school tomorrow.

Chapter 42: The Final Angel, Finale and a Weebee first!.

What the hell is going on out there?" Ritsuko demanded, as Evangelion Unit 01 performed a flying tackle into the sixteenth angel.

"We aren't sure Ma'am!" Maya reported looking confusedly between Aoba and Hyuga. "It appears that the EVA has entered berserker mode, but it's manifesting a clear ego trace!"

"What?" Ritsuko asked, a theory that she'd been nursing ever since Ranma had made his seemingly miraculous escape from the EVA seeming to wave a red flag in the back of her mind. "Open a link to the pilot. Kaoru, can you regain control over the EVA?"

"I'm sorry Dr. Akagi," the angelic EVA pilot stated over the link, seeming to be very shaken. "It's not listening to any of my commands!" A few seconds went by in silence, and then an audible gulp was heard. "It just informed me that if I try to take control of it again it will forcibly eject the entry plug."

"It informed you?" Ritsuko asked, the theory she was beginning to put together gaining strength.

"Yes… I can hear it in my mind, as if it were my own thoughts." Kaoru said, uncertainly.

Ritsuko sighed, and then nodded. "Maya, inform Rei and Shinji that they are to pull back." As the three technicians gave her a surprised look, she grinned ruefully, and a most Misato like thought ran through her head. 'Saotome, if you screw this up I'm going to kill you.' Seeing that her orders weren't being followed, she glared hard at Maya, who immediately started relaying the orders to the two pilots.

HR

Ranma flexed his fingers, feeling the steel reinforcement and armor plates sliding against his skin. It was an odd feeling, his entire body being interwoven with artificial structures, wires and computer parts, and it was mildly disconcerting. He was attempting to get used to moving as the EVA rather than inside it, and had threatened the pilot rather harshly when he had tried to regain control and distracted him. He now believed that he had the basics of his new body down, and noticed with approval that Shinji and Rei were leaving the battlefield to stand on the sidelines with Asuka.

Focusing his attention on the angel, which was just now recovering from the crushing tackle he had hit it with, he jumped out of the way as it reared up and lashed at him. Instinctively reaching up to his shoulder, he withdrew the progressive knife, noticing that he could actually feel the blade sliding from its sheath near his shoulder's ball joint. He tried lashing out with the blade, but just as it had when Shinji and Rei had tried the same, the angel seemed to become insubstantial, allowing the blade to pass through it's body harmlessly.

This didn't make sense. He'd been able to crash into the thing and knock it away from EVAs 00 and 03, however when he tried to attack it now he couldn't do any damage. As his chi spiked in annoyance, he realized something else that felt different when he was the EVA than when he was simply synchronized with it. Where normally his Chi could be used to move the EVA's own energy around, allowing for strength and speed enhancements such as the Amaguriken, or the projection of an AT field, now the aura of the Machine was his own. If his Evangelion mouth was capable of it, he would have split into an evil grin as the possibilities of this new level of control dawned upon him.

Cupping his hands in front of his body, he focused his confidence energy into them and thrust them forward. As if it were him doing it in a normal battle, a large ball of energy formed in his hands, and he tried to voice the battle cry that went with the attack, only actually giving off a loud roar as the coruscating ball of force leapt towards the angel.

HR

On the edge of the battlefield, Asuka gaped in awe as EVA 01 suddenly shot a ball of energy at the angel, that engulfed it and then impacted into the ground, forming a large crater. After letting loose a German curse, the second child said the only thing she could. "What the hell was that?"

The other three pilots, including Kaoru who was watching from inside Unit 01, nodded in agreement.

"Well, I guess that means the battle's over." Shinji said, laughing nervously.

"I would assume so." Rei concurred, watching the dust cloud that hovered at the energy ball's impact point. That was when the snakelike angel came shooting out of the cloud, almost seeming to be angry, despite the fact that there was no real way to tell the emotional state of a line of light.

EVA 01 jumped out of it's way as it lashed at it quickly and furiously, countering whenever it could with it's progressive knife, but again the slashes seemed to go right through the angel.

HR

Misato drove quickly down the main link between Tokyo 2 and 3. Quickly meaning that Kaji was fearing for his life. Truthfully, he'd never been a passenger in a car in which Misato was the driver, and he was now wishing that he'd never let the madwoman drive. "m, Misato?" He asked, nervously clutching at the padded handle on his door.

"Yeah?" The aforementioned psychotic driver asked, turning to face the one who'd rescued her from the SEELE base, and making him wish that he hadn't opened his big mouth.

"Could you please slow down?" He asked, his teeth gritted, and his eyes glued on the road in front of the car.

"Everyone's a critic." Misato muttered, slowing from 140 MPH to a more reasonable 60. As she crested a hill that was one of the first indicators that she was entering the area of Tokyo 3, her 60 MPH speed abruptly went crashing down to zero, both passenger and driver looking up in shock to see that there was an angel attacking the city, and all four EVAs were deployed. Misato looked into the back seat to see that yes, Ranma was still there even if he was looking with a glassy stare up into the sky, and then back at the battlefield, where Unit 01 was engaged in slashing and dodging what looked like a snake made of light. "Who's piloting that thing?" She asked, looking puzzled.

Kaji shrugged. "They could have brought in a backup pilot." He suggested, uncertainly.

"Well, we're going to find out." Misato decided, beginning to drive towards the nearest entrance to the Geofront.

"But doesn't this road go right through that battlefield?" Kaji asked, looking nervous. Now, Kaji Ryouji was NOT a coward, however he was a spy. He preferred nice, subtle, and stealthy operations. Misato Katsuragi on the other hand much preferred the direct approach, even if it was stupidly dangerous and reckless. With that said, NERV's strategic operations officer slammed her foot down on the accelerator, speeding towards the battlefield.

HR

In Central Dogma, an alarm on Hyuga's computer console began to go off. Curious, he acknowledged it, and his eyes widened. "Dr. Akagi!" He said, sounding half panicked and half astonished.

"What is it?" Ritsuko asked, tearing her gaze away from the battle between unit 01 and the angel.

"There's a small vehicle approaching the city at high speed." Hyuga said, transferring the image from a set of cameras onto the main screen, where Ritsuko gaped at the sight of a small blue car speeding down the highway.

"Misato?" She asked, blinking in astonishment.

"The registration matches Major Katsuragi's vehicle." Aoba replied, a small smile on his face. The smile began to fall away as he realized where she was heading. "…but she's headed for an entrance to the Geofront that's right near the angel battlefield.

"What?" Ritsuko asked, incredulously. "Is she insane?" She sighed, as the answer to that question immediately came into her head as a resounding YES! "Alright, get Units 02 and 03 to escort her in so she doesn't get herself killed."

"Yes Ma'am." Maya responded, quickly turning to her console.

Shinji looked incredulously at the face of Lt. Ibuki on a screen in his EVA. "Misato's what?" He asked, blinking.

"Major Katsuragi's vehicle is entering the battlefield. You and Pilot Soryuu are to escort her safely to the Geofront." Shinji felt the urge to face fault, however that was hard to do inside of an entry plug so he just nodded instead, moving away from his stationary position.

HR

Ranma lunged forward, actually managing to grab a hold of the snakelike body of the angel he was fighting. For some reason, this time it hadn't been able to faze itself out of solid existence before he could get a hold of it, but as he grasped it he felt the immense heat that it generated. It was like holding a superheated steel bar, but he wasn't quite ready to let it go yet. Swinging it around, he gathered a large amount of momentum, flinging it away as hard as he could. As he let it fly through the air, he heard the alarmed voice of the EVA's replacement pilot in his head. Come to think of it, he'd never gotten that guy's name. Whipping around to track the angel's flight path, he found that he'd thrown it towards where Shinji and Asuka were, running on either side of a road. 'Damn, I thought those two were standing with Rei!" He cursed, charging after the thrown angel.

"They were ordered to move to their present location to protect someone named Major Katsuragi." came the voice of the pilot, seeming to have heard his thoughts.

'To protect Misato?' Ranma thought, then cursed as he accelerated more quickly. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough, as the angel impacted Shinji's AT field, causing the fourth child's EVA to fall sideways, catching itself on one arm before it could land on the road. Looking carefully, the Martial artist saw a small blue object speeding through the gap between Unit 03's arm and its main body.

Sighing in relief, which came out of the EVA as a soft gurgling sound, the currently disembodied pigtailed martial artist's mind suddenly made one of the intuitive leaps that had one him many, many battles in the past. 'Hey, whoever you are.' He thought, hoping that the pilot would pick up his thoughts.

"My name is Kaoru, and I hear you." Kaoru said, almost sounding annoyed.

'Ask Ritsuko if that angel produces more than about 300 degrees Fahrenheit of heat.'

The EVA pilot blinked, confused. "Why would you need to know that?" he asked, confused.

'Just ask.' Ranma growled, annoyed.

Kaoru shrugged, and nodded. "Dr. Akagi?"

HR

Most of the crew at Central Dogma looked confused as the pilot of Unit 01 appeared to be having a one sided conversation with himself, however Ritsuko was nodding, as if this was something that she had expected. When Kaoru called her name, she nodded to indicate that she wished to have a line opened to unit 01, and answered. "Yes, Kaoru?" She asked, calmly.

"This may sound strange, but Unit 01 wishes to know if the angel we are fighting is producing over 300 degrees of heat." Kaoru said, sounding very confused.

From his station, Hyuga nodded. "Much more than that." He confirmed, sounding as confused as the EVA's pilot.

"Well, tell EVA 01 that it's producing much more heat than that, and ask it precisely what the hell it's thinking." Ritsuko asked, sounding annoyed.

HR

Inside of the EVA, Ranma gave a mental smirk. He was clearly aggravating Ritsuko, and for now that was about all the retaliation he could get against her for her putting Shinji and Rei in danger. 'Tell her she'll see.' He said, having heard everything. As Kaoru relayed his message, producing a very satisfying growl of annoyance from Ritsuko, Ranma dove for the angel, in order to get it's attention once again. When it began trying to strike him again, he focused his aura, attempting to eliminate all emotion, and therefore all heat, from it. Admittedly thanks to the EVA's many electronic parts the soul of ice wasn't quite as effective as it could be, however it could do the job.

HR

What the hell is Engelkind two doing?" Asuka asked, from the Geofront entrance where she and Shinji were watching the battle after ensuring that Misato's car was safely underground.

Shinji just shook his head. "I've got no idea."

Rei, from her position across the battlefield, began to notice some strangely familiar movement patterns, as EVA 01 began to walk in a circle, dodging as the angel struck at it over and over. "I believe I have seen this tactic practiced by Ranma on one occasion." She said, coolly.

"The Engelkind, but he's not piloting the EVA." Asuka said, confused.

"I am unsure, but that is almost certainly one of Ranma's evasive patterns." Rei said, calmly.

"But why's he just dodging?" Shinji asked, confused.

"Is it just me or is that circle getting smaller every time he goes around?" Asuka asked, focusing intently on the battle.

All of their questions were suddenly answered, as Unit 01 stepped into the middle of a perfect spiral, and launched an uppercut that missed the sixteenth angel by about fifteen feet. Fortunately, this particular move didn't have to be accurate, as the wind around the two combatants picked up to gale force, swirling dust and debris from the prolonged battle into the air, along with the suddenly immobile angel.

"What in the world…" Ritsuko, the NERV techs, a just arrived Misato, and two of the three watching EVA pilots whispered, watching as a tornado suddenly sprung up in the middle of Tokyo 3. Rei, who had once heard the technique described, was just amazed that the described move was actually possible, and Kaoru, who was at some level linked to the one performing the move, almost knew what was going to happen.

As the maelstrom of wind raged around the perfectly stationary EVA, the angel that had been swept up in it, composed entirely of semi-solid energy, was ripped to pieces, which quickly melded into the funnel. After the angel's energy was expended, the storm died away, leaving Unit 01, it's arm upraised, as the only thing standing in the decimated part of the city that was the battlefield. As Kaoru suddenly found himself back in full control of the EVA, Ranma Saotome woke with a splitting headache in the back of Misato Katsuragi's car, parked in the underground parking garage.

END.

Take note. This is the first time I've EVER used the Hiryu Shoten Ha in ANY of my stories! Seriously, check it out. I've never had occasion to use it before, but this was just way too tempting. Well, please read and review!

Also, sorry for any misspellings of in series stuff, new OS means I have to reprogram my dictionary and I'm doing most of it by ear.

Also, don't guff me about the temperature measure. I don't know much on high temperatures aside from 451 F being the combustion point of paper, and I also know full well that 2015 Japan would probably use the Celsius scale, just please suspend disbelief.

* * *

**Chapter 43: Chapter 43 Aftermath part I**

* * *

Weebee's sitting in a small room with an oversized fan visible in the background. Suddenly, a shadow appears in front of him.

Weebee:It took you long enough.

Misato:Well, I'm back.

She cocks her gun.

Misato:Now write, or else!

Weebee: Eeep! Yes, ma'am.

Weebee(muttering): Pushy muses, yeash!

Misato: What was that!

Weebee: Nothing ma'am!

Misato: That's what I thought, now hurry up, I have ta go see Lisa next and SWAT teams cost money.

Chapter 43, Aftermath part I.

As the huge forms of the Evangelion units backed into their storage cages, Rei Ayanami's pale hand quivered with unusual excitement on the ejection handle of her entry plug. The moment the loud clunking and rattling of the hydraulic locking bolts finished vibrating through her machine, she pulled the handle, and was out of the plug.

Two technicians who had been standing by the door into the EVA cages blinked in surprise. "Did you just see what I saw, Hideki?" One asked, looking at the other.

"Did you see Rei Ayanami running out of the room at top speed?" Hideki responded, deadpan. At the first man's nod, he shook his head. "Nope, I didn't." He responded, taking a small flask of something out of a pocket on his overalls and chugging from it.

As the other three pilots exited their machines in a more conventional fashion, Asuka looked at Shinji. "So, what do you think that was about?" She asked, curiously.

The fourth child just looked back at her blankly, as the fifth joined them on the catwalk. "Miss Ayanami certainly is excitable, isn't she?" Kaoru asked, perturbed by the presence of yet more inaccuracies in his reports. His perturbation just became worse as the second child started snickering. "Did I say something funny?" He asked, as Shinji and Asuka walked for the cage entrance.

HR.

"All EVA units have been secured." Aoba reported.

"Good." Ritsuko said, nodding. "Make sure they've all powered down completely, and then dispatch recovery teams to whatever's left of the city." She grimaced. While unit 01's final stunt hadn't done as much direct damage as the self destruction of an Evangelion would have, it had scattered very large debris all over the city. She was just thankful that everyone had either been evacuated a few days before or in shelters, or the death toll would have been… unpleasant.

"Good work, Doctor." Came Gendo's voice, from the doors that lead into central dogma.

The blonde doctor spun, looking at the commander in surprise. "Commander Ikari? I didn't think you'd be back yet."

Gendo just dismissed the obvious question in Ritsuko's comment, turning to Misato, who was standing off to the side of the room. "Welcome back, Major." He said, nodding slightly. As he spoke his next phrase, a small glint of excitement couldn't be hidden, even behind his dark tinted glasses. "I trust you freed all of the prisoners when you escaped from the SEELE base?"

"Ranma and I were the only ones there I believe, sir." Misato said, unsure of what Gendo was getting at.

Gendo's expression turned to a hard frown as he spoke next. "And what of Yui Ikari."

Misato winced, and unknown to Gendo, Ritsuko's eyes widened. "Commander… Yui Ikari wasn't there." The Major said, trying to pick her words carefully. "The group who kidnapped us… somehow… used Ranma to impersonate her. I'm sorry, sir."

Gendo flinched as though he had been shot for a moment, before regaining his composure. "I see, Major. I believe that this requires further inquiry. You, Doctor Akagi and professor Fuyutsuki will report for a meeting in 45 minutes." He said, strained, before walking from the bridge. Approximately five minutes later, anyone who passed hallway G-14 would have seen NERV's commander and chief taking his frustrations out on an unfortunate vending machine. If anyone had seen it, they weren't saying, and perhaps the several large bullet holes in the machine's front were a good enough explanation for that.

HR.

"Are you sure you're all right, kid?" Kaji asked, as Ranma unsteadily leaned himself up against a wall for the fourth time in the past ten minutes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." The boy replied, straightening up. "Just gotta get this damned thing off my wrist." He muttered, holding up one hand, the small band still visible around its wrist.

"Hmm." The older man said, before looking off to the side. "I think I've got that covered."

Ranma looked at Kaji oddly for a moment, before he bent down to a toolbox that was resting near an open access panel in a wall and retrieved a pair of bolt cutters. "Stretch out your hand."

Ranma nodded, before doing so. The older man clamped the bolt cutters down around the band, and with a soft sizzle of breaking electronics, it fell to the floor.

"Ah, that feels better." Ranma said, his vitality seeming to flow back into his body within an instant. It was rather fortunate that that had just happened, since a medium sized blue blur slammed into him at high speed a moment later, followed by three confused EVA pilots who had followed it from the cage, who just stood back and watched. "Huh?" He asked, looking down in surprise.

"Hmm, I wish I could get a greeting like that from Misato." Kaji said, as he saw Rei hugging Ranma fiercely.

"I am glad that you came back." Rei said, resting her head in the crook between Ranma's neck and shoulder.

"I guess I should leave the two of you alone, now?" Kaji said, smirking.

Ranma blushed, wanting to say something to shut Kaji up, but as he opened his mouth, he was silenced by Rei kissing him.

"Wow, Engelkind. You move fast! Only back a few minutes and Rei's kissing you already!" Asuka hooted, smiling. She wasn't just smiling for the opportunity to tease Ranma, though she wouldn't admit any other motive if tortured. "Glad you're back." She muttered, under her breath.

"Did you say something, Asuka?" Shinji asked.

"Nope, didn't say anything,." The pilot of unit 02 responded, quickly.

From behind the happily reuniting group, Kaoru watched them, troubled. As Kaji left the impromptu gathering, he followed.

HR.

"Great." Misato said, sitting at her desk in her office. "I've got a meeting in 20 minutes, and all I can say is 'A bunch of stuff happened, and I don't know how or why.' Great way to make your career, Katsuragi." She muttered. She'd wanted to go see the pilots before this point, but Gendo had seemed very upset, or at least as upset as Gendo got, when she'd informed him that SEELE wasn't holding his wife on the bridge, and something told her that she should probably prepare for this meeting.

"Hmm, what are you working on?" Came Kaji's voice, as the brown haired man leaned over her left shoulder and peaked at the documents she was reading over.

"Kaji, what are you doing here?" She asked, flipping the pile of documents to the title page and only stopping long enough to mark her place.

"I just wanted to talk to you, something wrong with that?" The man replied, his usual infuriatingly cryptic smirk on his lips.

"I don't have time for this." Misato growled, starting to turn back to her work.

Kaji's smirk immediately disappeared. "No, this is important, Misato." He said, seriously. The tone surprised her, and got her to turn back to him.

"What is it?" She asked.

He didn't answer, just reaching into one of his suit's pockets, hesitating for a moment. For that same tense moment, Misato thought that he was going to pull a gun on her or something, before he exhaled quickly and withdrew the hand, holding a small black box.

It took Misato a few moments to identify the object, before her eyes widened. "This is a joke, right?" She asked, shocked.

Her shock only deepened as Kaji knelt in front of her and opened the box to reveal a small, beautifully crafted gold ring. "Misato Katsuragi, will you marry me?" He asked, looking steadily into her eyes as he said it.

"Why… what… huh?" She stuttered, articulately.

Kaji's hand drooped a little, but he kept his eyes locked on her as he explained. "Look, to put it simply, Considering that I just came back from rescuing you from one set of my employers, I'm a dead man. Thought I may as well get rid of my biggest regret before I go." His explanation seemed almost off-hand, but she could see some glimmer of truth in his eyes.

She sat silently for a few more seconds while Kaji's expression began to crack, before nodding. "I will." She finally said, reaching out to take the ring. "God help me, I'll marry you."

Kaji's face split into a genuine smile at her words, before he grabbed her in a tight hug and kissed her passionately.

HR.

"I don't think she's coming." Ritsuko Akagi said, looking down at her watch. She looked apprehensively up to Gendo, who was sitting at his traditional place at the head of the conference table, his hands clasped across his mouth.

"Perhaps, then, you should begin explaining to me precisely what happened during the most recent angel battle while we wait for her." Gendo suggested.

Ritsuko nodded. "That may be a good idea, since Major Katsuragi isn't cleared for some of the information I need to refer to." She explained, waiting for Gendo's nod before continuing. "I presume what you want to know is how unit 01 produced that massive atmospheric disturbance at the end of the fight?" At Gendo's slight nod, she shrugged. "I don't know. I suggest you ask pilot Saotome."

Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow at this comment. "I thought that Nagisa was piloting unit 01 during the battle." He said, before Gendo could say anything.

"He was." Ritsuko said, before noticing Gendo's hands twitching in a clear, at least to people who knew him, sign that he wanted her to get on with the explanation. "You recall when unit 01 absorbed Saotome during the attack of the fourteenth angel." At another set of nods, she continued. "Well, our attempt to recover the pilot failed."

"I'm sure Mr. Saotome would dispute that claim." Gendo said, his face darkening at the mention of Ranma's name for some reason that Ritsuko couldn't understand.

Ritsuko merely slid a small image across the table to Gendo, who examined it critically. It appeared to be a picture of a microscope slide showing a small, multi limbed organism with what looked almost like an angel's core in its center. "What am I looking at?" He asked, confused.

"This is what I got when I took a sample of a strange growth that had appeared on Unit 01's core during Ranma's absorption. I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but during Ranma's disappearance, one of his tissue samples that I'd taken after he'd emerged from the EVA reverted mostly to LCL, with several of these creatures floating in what was left." She shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure, but I'd say that this is the angel part of Ranma. Before he was absorbed, most of these were hidden inside of a mostly human body, which means that Ranma was once entirely human. When he failed to successfully escape the EVA, my guess is that he subconsciously rebuilt his body from the raw LCL."

"This still doesn't explain Unit 01's actions." Fuyutsuki pointed out, though a large portion of his mind was busy going over the implications of Ritsuko's discovery. If it was correct, then NERV was lucky that Ranma had manifested how he had. If an angel like that had taken any other route to enter the Geofront, it would be damned hard to stop.

"I was getting to that." Ritsuko muttered quietly, apparently escaping the notice of either Gendo or Fuyutsuki. "Basically, what this boils down to is that Ranma and unit 01 have merged pretty well completely. The Ranma that's walking around is only a part of the whole, and is being remote controlled by the EVA through some method that I don't quite understand. When his… its… concentration was needed to help the other EVA units fight the angel, it just returned to its main body."

"Hmm…" Gendo commented, right before the door to the meeting room opened. The three people in the room turned, only to see Misato hurriedly fixing her wrinkled uniform.

"Sorry I'm late." The major said, sheepishly, as Kaji Ryouji walked in behind her, grinning like an idiot.

"Glad you finally showed up." Ritsuko ribbed, glad to have something to finally break the tension.

Misato didn't respond, only blushing slightly and sitting down in her seat. As Kaji made no move to leave, Gendo looked up at him for a moment. "Mr. Kaji, I'd suggest that you leave." He finally said, his patience exhausted.

Kaji just looked at him for a moment and then nodded, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

"Major, perhaps we should begin your debriefing now." Gendo said, after an awkward silence had settled on the room for several moments.

Misato cleared her throat, and then began telling her story, leaving as little out as possible.

A few minutes later, Gendo was looking at her intently. "So you are saying that the pilot was forced to change his form and impersonate Doctor Ikari because you were threatened?" He asked, unsure of how to react. He had become hopeful over the idea that SEELE had somehow returned Yui to life, one of the things that he'd been trying to accomplish with Rei for the past ten years, and had wanted to be angry with Saotome for his actions, however it seemed that if he hadn't performed them, Major Katsuragi would likely have been shot and killed.

Misato nodded, unsure of what Gendo's reaction would be from behind those dark glasses of his.

"I see. You are dismissed, Major. Go and debrief the pilots from their most recent mission. I believe that they've been waiting for at least half an hour now." Gendo said, gesturing to the door.

"Yes, sir." Misato said, quickly leaving the room.

HR.

When Gendo exited the meeting room a few moments later, he wasn't entirely surprised to see Kaji sitting on a bench and waiting for him.

"I see that you have proposed to Major Katsuragi." He started.

"Thought I may as well." Kaji said, looking away.

"You believe that SEELE will have you killed for rescuing the Major, correct?" Ikari asked, as he began steadily walking down the hallway towards his office.

"It's pretty much inevitable, isn't it?" Kaji responded, falling into step next to him.

"It would be, if NERV were to cooperate with them in their attempts." Gendo responded.

"Why wouldn't you?" Kaji's surprise was evident in his voice, but he tried to keep his expression neutral.

To his even greater surprise, when Gendo turned to him his mouth was formed into a hard scowl. "They have been pushing my buttons for a very long time, Mr. Kaji." He answered. "I believe that it is time to push back."

Kaji just gaped as Gendo stalked off down the hall, having just, for all intents and purposes, stated his intention to openly rebel against SEELE.

END CHAPTER.

End Notes: There, I said 'END CHAPTER.' happy now?

Looks like Gendo's on the war path now, and Kaoru's still confused. Sorry for the long update time, but I'm not gunna try and explain it away.

Enjoy, and please Review!

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**Chapter 44: Chapter 44 Aftermath Part II**

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Okay, folks. Sorry it's taken so long for another update, but I HAVE been working. There's a major, or at least pretty substantial, rewrite of AOL in progress right now, and we're up to chapter 19...

James Axelrad: 21!

Weebee:Yes, 21… As I was saying, give us another year or so, and it'll be done! :P

At any rate, here's the latest chapter. Hope you all enjoy it, and don't forget to review.

Oh, one more thing. Whoever gave Misato all that money, You do realize that she's used it to buy a tankerload of beer. Haven't seen her for weeks!

Chapter 44, Aftermath Part II, Gendo's hope.

Gendo Ikari stopped with his hand hovering several centimeters away from the door to his office. Once he entered, he would start to make calls that would mobilize NERV's resources, preparing for an all-out rebellion against SEELE. There would be no turning back, and no hope of carrying out third impact., through SEELE's plans or his own.

Letting his arm fall to his side, the tall, dark haired leader of NERV turned away and started walking in the other direction. In his mind, he brought up an almost perfect map of NERV HQ, estimating where the children would likely be at this moment.

HR.

Ritsuko sighed as she ran a hand through her still rather unkempt hair. She had just gotten out of a meeting with Gendo, Fuyutsuki and Misato, after she had convinced herself that Gendo HAD to know of her dealings with SEELE, and... nothing. He hadn't even glanced at her oddly when he'd left the room.

As she picked up and packed away the slides and reports that she was going to use during the briefing, she thought about that. It didn't make her happy. It was odd. She had escaped likely execution by Gendo, for some reason, and she wasn't relieved. No, she knew why she wasn't relieved.

Quite frankly, it was because she wanted to be caught. She'd been leaking information to SEELE, and even sabotaging NERV equipment and operations for more than a year now, and, as things wound towards the end in one way or another, she felt guilty. "Well, I should be." She muttered, remembering that it had probably been partially her actions that had made them kidnap Misato and Ranma.

According to Misato's accounts, they had been torturing the EVA pilot, and they'd almost shot her in the head. Silently, she reached into her lab coat pocket, removing a piece of paper that had the time and location details of her next meeting with SEELE on it. Quite deliberately, she tore it up, dumped it in a garbage can and walked away. It wasn't the best and most secure way of destroying the paper, but then again, she almost wanted to be caught.

HR.

In a small resting area near the main exit from NERV HQ, the five EVA pilots were sitting. They had come here after Rei's rather enthusiastic greeting of Ranma, and the pigtailed pilot had started explaining what had happened to himself and Misato after he let it slip that he'd taken over Unit 01 during the battle.

"So, let me get this straight." Asuka said, annoyed. "You and Misato were kidnapped by those guys in the black pajamas. That, I saw. Then you were tortured for over two days before Misato and Kaji broke you out. That's kinda hard to swallow, but THEN, you somehow, and you admit that you don't know how you did it, took over Unit 01 and beat the angel? That's... That's..." She sputtered to a halt, unsure of what to say.

"Strangely believable?" Shinji quipped, dryly.

Asuka growled. "Yes!"

Shinji and Rei merely chuckled, while Ranma looked slightly embarrassed. Kaoru, who had mostly succeeded in staying out of everyone's way, continued to hang back in one corner and observe.

It was a testament to the other pilots' relief to either see their friend again or be back home that no one had thought to introduce him yet. "So, erm, what's been going on here while I was away." Ranma asked.

"Well, Commander Ikari finally replaced you." Asuka smirked, pointing at Kaoru, who seemed surprised to be the new center of attention.

"I'm sure that I wasn't brought in to replace Mr. Saotome." The seventeenth angel said, leaving it unsaid that Mr. Saotome wasn't supposed to exist in the version of the final scenario he was familiar with.

"This is the guy that was inside of Unit 01 during the battle?" Ranma asked, looking the pale boy over. "Rei, you sure you don't have any siblings?"

"You know that quite well." The first child said, with what may or may not have been a disapproving look at the tastelessness of the joke.

It took Ranma a second to realize the implications of what he'd said, before shooting a sheepish look back at Rei. Remembering where the conversation had been before, he turned back to the fifth child. "I'm sorry 'bout threatening you during the battle. I was under a lot of stress, ya'know?"

"You threatened him?" Asuka asked, curiously. "What did you say?"

Ranma was cut off from having to answer by the sound of a throat clearing at the entrance to the room. All of the children turned to see who was there, only to stare in surprise at Gendo Ikari.

"Father?" Shinji asked, uncertainly.

"Shinji." Gendo nodded in acknowledgement, before turning to face Ranma. "Mr. Saotome, I would like to speak with you."

"Sure." Ranma said, getting up from the couch he'd been sitting on with Rei.

As the blue haired girl stood to follow, Gendo spoke again. "I will need to speak to the third child alone, Rei."

Rei looked between the man who she'd known and obeyed for most of her life and the one who she had grown close to. She only returned to her seat when Ranma nodded and smiled at her reassuringly. "I will see you at the apartment, then?" She asked, levelly.

"Yeah." Ranma responded, following Gendo as he turned and left the room.

HR.

"So, Gendo, what do ya want?" Ranma asked, as the commander of NERV lead him into his office, and gestured to a chair that sat at the other side of his heavy stone desk.

The pigtailed martial artist reluctantly sat down, looking around wearily. There was something not quite right about this place. Something that made him rather nervous. After Gendo slipped into his own chair opposite Ranma, he reached over to a small keypad that was sunken into the desktop and tapped a few buttons. Instantly, the uneasy feeling left the back of Ranma's mind.

"There are several dozen listening and observation devices in or near this room. They have been neutralized." Gendo said, as a way of explanation.

Ranma blinked, and then tried to ask his original question again. "Alright, now that no one's listening to ya, what's goin on?"

Gendo thought for a few moments, his fingers steepled in front of his mouth in his usual form of contemplation, before he leaned back, his palms laid flat on the surface. "I wanted to ask you some questions, Mr. Saotome." He started. "The first of which is, why did you impersonate my wife in that SEELE transmission yesterday?"

Ranma was about to reply, when something hit him. "Wait, those guys were SEELE?"

Gendo nodded, wondering what the boy was getting at and how he knew of SEELE.

"I thought they were funding Gehern and NERV... What would they be doing kidnapping EVA pilots?" Ranma asked, confused.

This response actually seemed to get a reaction out of Gendo, as his face took on a very confused, and slightly comical, expression. "How did you know that SEELE was funding NERV?" He demanded.

"Well," Ranma started, concentrating. "During the early days of Gehern, I... I mean Yui... had to spend hours on the phone arguing with their representatives. I mean, they didn't even seem to understand that it takes huge amounts of resources to even attempt to clone a life form, especially one as large as an EVA." He stopped, dead, after realizing that he was starting to rant. "... sorry, it's kinda hard to keep my memories and Yui's straight." He frowned. "At least it's been hard to do ever since the fourteenth angel."

Gendo wasn't listening, however. What Ranma had just said was, almost word for word, an exact recitation of a Rant that Yui liked making at length after getting off of the phone with Gehern's technical backers. Though he had been equally concerned about the details, and had usually been the one to go and straighten out the budget snarls they'd been a part of, he'd always found it slightly amusing watching the little brown haired woman pacing across her office, ranting at the walls.

"Yui is really in there, isn't she?" He asked, the mixture of hope, confusion and despair in that one sentence having trumped every emotional display Ranma had ever seen out of him.

HR.

"Thank you, Katsuragi-san." Kaoru said, as Misato closed her door in preparation to drive to her own apartment.

"No problem." She said, smiling. "We had room for you since Ranma's coming home later."

"Yes…Ranma." Kaoru muttered to himself, unheard by anyone else. After the Major's car had pulled away, he moved upstairs to his apartment, sitting down at his desk and retrieving a small cellular phone from underneath it. Dialing in a number, he waited. After a soft click came, he spoke. "Hello? This is Tabris. The events here have not played out in the fashion I was told they would. I..." He was interrupted by talking from the person on the other end.

"Then I will need instruction on how to proceed next." He complained, apparently not liking what he heard, as his face showed very evident annoyance. "Tonight, yes." He finally said, hanging up the phone.

This wasn't good, not at all.

HR.

Ranma looked at Gendo, surprised at the intensity of the question he'd just asked, and unsure how to respond. "It's, it's kinda complicated." He finally answered, carefully.

"What do you mean, it's complicated." Gendo responded, managing to bring most of his excess emotions back under his control, but with a definite sense of eagerness.

Ranma rubbed the sides of his head, trying to figure out a way to explain it. "Gendo, there aren't two people in my head, or something. I'm one integrated being, with both Yui and Ranma's memories and feelings."

The commander nodded, remembering what Dr. Akagi had explained earlier. If Unit 01 and Ranma had fused together somehow, it made a strange sort of sense. "Is there any way you could become two people again?" He asked.

"I... don't know." Ranma conceded. "But... you may not want that."

Gendo almost lost his composure again there, this time to disbelief. "Why, exactly, wouldn't I want my wife brought back from the dead?" He asked.

A rather vindictive voice in the back of Ranma's head, one which he was pretty sure originally came from Yui, urged him to tell Gendo that she'd probably hate him for abandoning Shinji and becoming a manipulative bastard, but he held back. At the moment, with Gendo staring at him with, if he read it right, an expression of hope and confusion on his face, it would be like kicking a puppy. Yes, a rather angry, annoying puppy that liked to hide his slippers, but a puppy nonetheless.

"Have you ever been in a sensory deprivation chamber?" The third child asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"No." Gendo said, slowly. "What does this have to do with me not wanting Yui brought back?" There was evident impatience in his voice by that point.

"Well, spending a lot of time floating in one of those chambers tends to drive people insane, and being stuck inside of Unit 01's a lot like being in one." Ranma explained, then frowned. "You know when Unit 01 went Berserk? That was what Yui would be like without another mind to reinforce hers."

The sad part was, he was telling the truth. Without a pilot in the Machine to give it guidance, Unit 01's mind had been a lot like that of a wild animal the few times he could remember going berserk. He was pretty sure that it was kind of similar to how the Nekoken thought.

"I... see." Gendo said, flatly. "That is all I needed, Mr. Saotome."

Ranma felt mildly uncomfortable. "Look, I'm sorry." He started, before Gendo waved him off.

"I have many things to do. Report to the Major."

"Yes, commander." Ranma said, showing the man an amount of respect that would have surprised him a month before. He knew that it was only proper to show a grieving man a little compassion. Standing up, the pigtailed pilot slowly turned and walked out of the room.

HR.

"My... apartment." Misato Katsuragi said, gaping at the sight in front of her. Beside her, Shinji, Asuka and Rei stood, looking on with equally stunned expressions.

What they were looking at was a multi-story apartment building. This wasn't a particularly interesting site, until you noticed the gaping hole that had been sliced from one side of the eleventh floor to the other, and the massive, EVA sized knife that lay embedded in a street nearby.

"You know, Asuka, this is your fault." Misato said, glairing at the second child.

"Huh?" Asuka asked, too confused to even be angry at the accusation.

"It's your prog knife." The older woman said, before turning and running for the building's entrance.

"Oh, so that's where that went..." Asuka mumbled, thoughtfully, before noticing Misato's actions. "Where the hell are you going?" She demanded, quickly running after. Shinji looked questioningly at Rei, before they too followed. Shinji wasn't sure what else to do, and Rei was, at least marginally, confident that Misato wouldn't lead them into a building that was about to collapse.

"I'm going to see if Pen Pen's all right!" Misato called, answering Asuka's question. "That hole's pretty close to my apartment."

"And how do you know this whole building won't fall on us?" The second child demanded, though she did follow Misato into the building and up the fire stairs.

"This place is so over-built you could probably hit it with an air strike and it'd stand up." Misato dismissed, starting to puff as she made it up yet another flight of stairs.

Asuka shrugged, looking back to see that the other two were keeping pace. Shinji seemed to be panting and wheezing, while Rei actually made Asuka jealous with how little effort she was putting into her run. Growling in annoyance, the redhead tried not to look too tired as the group crested the final flight of stairs to the eleventh floor, bursting out into a hallway.

Misato stopped short as she saw that the hole in the building actually intersected at least a small section of her apartment. cursing, she fumbled to open the front door, and carefully stepped in.

Looking around, she saw that about half of her kitchen was missing. Pen Pen's fridge had been nicked, ending up knocked all the way over to the other side of the room, but the bird himself was laying on the couch, a beer in one shaking flipper. "Pen Pen, you're all right!" Misato called, happily, before running over and scooping up the surprised bird.

"Wark..." it said, weakly, dropping the mostly empty beer. As Misato hugged her pet happily, the three EVA pilots walked in.

"This is really touching," Asuka said, sarcastically, but we should probably get out of here before something happens."

Shinji nodded, throwing a very nervous look towards the missing kitchen.

Unfortunately, the sudden presence of several moving, vibration causing human beings in a building that had previously been almost completely empty did indeed cause something to shift.

The people in Misato's apartment hardly had time to turn as they heard a cracking sound, that of a partially sheared support giving out, and a large portion of the next floor up started falling towards them.

Misato cursed, Asuka screamed, and Shinji looked shocked. None of them, however, were prepared for what Rei did. Apparently on instinct alone, the light-blue haired girl shot out one hand towards the falling debris, and... it stopped.

Everyone blinked several times, including Rei. "I did not expect that to work." She mentioned, almost casually.

"What the hell?" Asuka burst out, not quite knowing whether to be incredibly grateful for not getting smashed into paste, or angry because it had apparently been Rei that saved her.

"I... is that an AT field?" Shinji wondered, staring at the hanging rubble. As Asuka looked harder, she could also see the traditional hexagonal pattern of an AT field, in a deep red color.

"We should leave quickly." Rei stated, flatly. Some of the strain was beginning to show on her face. "I am unsure of how much longer I can hold up the roof."

The others nodded, heading out of Misato's apartment as quickly as they could, Shinji and Asuka both vowing that they would ask Rei about what, exactly, she'd just done later.

END.

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**Chapter 45: Chapter 45 Revelations: Rei Ayanami**

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Hi again. Well, last chap was received… kinda quietly. Meh, guess that's what I get for not updating for so long. Still, those 7 reviews were all relatively positive, so another update is on its way.

Also, one of them informed me that this fic is five years old. I checked. They're right. Urk… Now that that's over, on with chapter 45.

Chapter 45, Revelations: Rei Ayanami.

"Okay, Rei. Do you want to start explaining now, or later?" Asuka demanded, as the three EVA pilots and their caretaker rode down the empty streets of Tokyo 3, on their way back to NERV.

Rei stayed silent, contemplating. She had revealed her ability to generate an AT field to the other pilots, and the reactions had been similar to what she'd expected from their psychological profiles. Asuka was angry at the fact that a secret this large had been kept from her. Shinji seemed cautious, but was reserving any outbursts until he knew all of the information. Misato was the only surprise. Rei knew that the major had an obsession with destroying the angels. She had known that the major knew Ranma was an angel and somehow got along with him, but the almost indifferent attitude she was displaying to Rei's revelation of an AT field was… confusing.

Another problem with the current situation was that Rei wasn't supposed to tell the other pilots about herself. Commander Ikari had ordered it. He had done so a very long time ago, to be sure, but it had still been an order.

"Well, are you going to answer me, or not?" Asuka demanded, leaning her head forward from the back of the car and over the passenger seat where Rei was sitting.

"Asuka, leave her alone for a minute." Shinji said, grabbing the redhead's wrist and pulling her back gently.

"You want to know too, don't you Shinji?" Asuka demanded, turning a glare to her apartment mate.

The fourth child flinched back at Asuka's expression, but firmed up. "Yeah, I want to know." He said, nodding. "But it's really none of our business."

"None of our business?" Asuka demanded, hotly. "Rei just manifested an AT field and showed herself to be an angel, and you say it's none of our business?"

"She did it to save our…" Shinji started, before the two were interrupted.

"I am only partially angel." Rei said, quietly.

Shinji and Asuka both looked towards her, confused. "Huh?" They asked.

Rei considered for a few seconds longer, before nodding decisively. "I will explain to you when we reach NERV."

Asuka was about to exclaim in protest, when Shinji put a hand on her shoulder again and shook his head. Reluctantly, she backed down and slumped into her seat, being sure not to lean on the passed-out penguin that was lying in between herself and the fourth child.

In the front seat of the car, Misato sighed as she reached up to adjust the mirror again. She was almost as curious about Rei's story as the children, to tell the truth, but Kaji had told her some of it long ago, when the two had seen ADAM, and she could wait. All she was concerned about was that the second child didn't try and strangle the info out of the first in her moving car.

HR.

"Yes, I am very sure about this." Gendo Ikari said, speaking into a telephone on his desk. "All of the city's defensive systems must be rearmed within the next week." The commander's face began to darken as he apparently received an answer that he didn't like. "I am aware of the demands I'm placing on your logistics network, but Tokyo 3 requires its full arsenal in working condition for the next angel attack." He listened for a few more seconds. "Yes, that is acceptable." He finally said, hanging up.

Sighing, the dark haired man was grateful that there was no one in his office at the moment as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. For the moment, that had been the last arrangement he could make in order to begin mobilizing all of the assets NERV had that SEELE couldn't take away from them.

For the most part, that consisted of Tokyo 3, the EVA series and NERV's own security personnel. His annoyed expression actually gave way to a small, half fatalistic smile as he stood from his desk and exited the office. He wondered if Dr. Akagi would call this another '09 chance.' As his mind drifted to Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, he started to head for the central dogma control room. The doctor had her uses, even if she was still a puppet of SEELE, and he was hoping that the events of the last few weeks had dissuaded her from following their path as thoroughly as they had him.

It was strange. The near complete demolition of his hopes for returning Yui to life should, by all rights, have driven him to suicidal depression, or at least anger. He did feel a rather healthy dose of both emotions, as a matter of fact, but the driving force at the moment was relief. The multi-man tug of war for the world's future via third impact was over. At least, his part in it was. Now, he wasn't responsible for the destiny of the entire human race on a newly remade earth, but the preservation of the status quo.

Seeing the EVA pilots and major Katsuragi walking past, the commander stopped, and tried a friendly smile. Misato jerked to a halt, and Shinji's eyes widened to the size of small cars. "Greetings Major, children." He said, continuing down the hall.

"Did you…" Misato asked, looking much more shaken than she had when Rei had manifested an AT field in her collapsing apartment earlier. Shinji just nodded.

"Do you want to hear what I have to tell?" Rei asked, having apparently not noticed that they had stopped until now.

"Oh, right." Shinji said, quickly catching up with the blue haired girl. Misato considered turning to see what in hell had gotten into the commander, but shrugged it off and followed as well.

About ten minutes later, Rei frowned as the optical scanner swept across her eye once again, letting out a soft beep that informed her that the door wasn't going to open. "What is this, Rei?" Shinji asked, looking at the heavy steel security door.

"This is the facility where I was born." Rei answered, simply. "I wished to show you, rather than simply telling you, as the commander and Ranma have both indicated that seeing something is much more conducive to belief than hearing about it."

"Where you were born?" Asuka asked, curious. "This isn't anywhere near the medical wing."

"Not in that sense." Rei said, before the group turned to hear the sound of feet pounding along the corridor.

"Hey!" Came a breathless female voice, as Ranma's girl form came skidding around a corner with a damp looking backpack on her back and Rei's school briefcase in one hand. "I've been looking for you guys everywhere!"

Misato looked over the third child, her eyebrow going up slightly as she took in the soaked brownish red hair and clothes, along with the backpack and other items. "Do I want to know?" She asked, simply.

"Your kitchen blew up." Ranma returned, shrugging.

"What were you doing in there?" Misato demanded. "You should have seen that my apartment wasn't safe to go into!"

Ranma shrugged. "I was afraid you guys were in there when the roof came down." She explained, sheepishly.

Misato looked exasperated. "Did you consider calling us on our cell phones?" She demanded, reaching into a pocket of her uniform jacket and producing the small black device.

As Ranma looked at the phone dumbly, Asuka cleared her throat. "While seeing the Engelkind being an idiot is entertaining, Rei was going to explain why she can use an AT field." She reminded, pointedly.

Ranma looked over at the blue haired girl, a concerned look on her face. "You're telling them?" She asked. At Rei's nod, she raised an eyebrow. "You sure? And why the hell're you doing it here?"

Rei nodded again, determined. "I wished to allow them access to the holding chamber here." She said. "And yes, I am sure. They deserve to know who they are working with, even if they do not wish to do so again in future."

Ranma quickly moved over to the slightly taller blue haired girl, putting an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sure they ain't gunna refuse to work with ya." She said, smirking. "After all, they put up with me."

Stepping back, she waited for Rei to open the door but the other girl shrugged. "It appears that my security clearance for this door has been rescinded, so perhaps we should go to a more comfortable place to talk."

"Your clearance has been rescinded?" Misato asked, surprised. She didn't know Gendo very well, but thought it odd that Rei's clearance to anywhere would be restricted.

"Who else's got clearance here, Rei?" Ranma asked, eyeing the door suspiciously.

"The commander and Dr. Akagi." Rei responded, instantly.

Ranma frowned. This was the holding tank for the Rei clones, so it was odd that she was locked out. Ranma had accessed the terminals in here before by using Yui's user name and password, so… shrugging, the girl concentrated and began to shift, growing another inch or two. Her hair lost its red highlights, and an almost perfect likeness of Yui Ikari stood there.

"How…. Did you do that?" Rei asked, honestly shocked as she looked at the suddenly taller brown haired woman who stood in the place of Ranma.

The brown haired woman just shrugged, bending to the retinal scanner and allowing it to sweep across her eye. The door didn't open, so she did something that, had Gendo been around, would have reminded him that this really wasn't the Yui he knew. She hauled back with her right fist, bringing it forward and smashing down the heavy sheet of metal.

"Neat trick." Misato muttered, having seen something similar to the first half when SEELE had forced Ranma to impersonate Yui before. Following the children into the room and stepping over the door, she listened as Rei started to talk.

"I am an artificial being, similar to the Evangelion Units." She explained, stepping towards the middle of the room, where a computer terminal stood next to a clear glass tube. "I was created through the combination of the genetic structures of a human and an angel."

Asuka blinked. "A human and an angel, which ones?" She asked, surprised.

"Yui Ikari and Lilith." Rei said, straightforwardly.

"Mom?" Shinji asked, stepping back in shock. Behind him, Ranma, who had returned to her normal female form, winced. Yeah, she was definitely NOT going to mention the fact that she and Yui were, for all intents and purposes, the same person around Shinji yet.

"Given my genetic makeup, I am related to you in the same way as a half sister." Rei answered, seeing the question in the fourth child's eyes. Seeing that everyone was either too stunned to speak or had nothing to say, she continued. "I was created this way in order to be used in the 'dummy plug system,' as well as…" The first child trailed off into stunned silence as she pressed a key, causing the red lights behind the clone tanks to light. She had expected to see the rows of her identical duplicates, staring back at her as per usual. What she did find was… nothing.

"What…" She asked, the shock on her face visible to everyone. "They are... gone?" Quickly, she turned to the computer console, entering commands and queries almost as expertly as Maya or Dr. Akagi could. There were no transfer requests, no need to use them as dummy plugs, they were just… gone, all of them. They had been destroyed.

"What's wrong with Rei?" Shinji asked, having noticed the look of fear and shock on the girl's face before she buried it in the computer.

"This room used to be filled with spare cloned bodies for Rei." Ranma explained. "I guess she wants to know where they all went."

"Clones?" Asuka asked, surprised.

"Ranma… they are gone." Rei said, her voice dead. "They have all been destroyed."

Ranma wasn't sure how to take that. Personally, if there were dozens of clones of her, she would be glad if they were all destroyed. Rei, on the other hand, sounded different. Her voice was shaking, and it sounded like she was going to start to cry.

"What's wrong, Rei?" She asked, moving up behind the blue haired girl and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Abruptly, Rei spun and clutched Ranma fiercely, crying into her chest. "They… are gone…." She whispered, over and over again. Ranma patted her on the back, confused, as the others slowly backed out of the room.

HR.

As Shinji and Asuka walked down the corridor behind Misato, they shot looks at each other. "What do you think that was about?" Asuka asked, suddenly.

Both of them knew what she'd meant. They had NOT expected Rei Ayanami to burst into tears in the middle of the clone room like that. It had been such a shock that they had accepted the seemingly much harder to swallow fact that she was a clone of Shinji's mother much more easily, not that that wouldn't be causing its own problems, at least for Shinji, in time.

"I don't know." The fourth child said, frowning slightly as Misato opened a door in front of them. She'd been talking on her cell phone near continuously since they'd left Rei's chamber, and only stopped now.

Turning to the two children, she smiled. "I've arranged some new quarters for us."

"Really?" Shinji asked, temporarily allowing his mind to leave Rei's situation. "Where are we staying?"

Misato smiled, gesturing around the hall they were standing in. Neither child comprehended until they saw that there were doors on both walls, 8 of them in all. Each had a small white name card on it. two of them were blank, but the other six had the names of the EVA pilots and their guardian neatly written on them. "What do you think?" She asked.

"You're putting us up in security barracks?" Asuka demanded, evenly.

"Well, we need a place to stay and now that the city's evacuated it would be much more convenient to stay inside of NERV HQ." The dark haired woman explained, happily.

While Asuka growled something back at her, Shinji had been reading the names on the doors. It had given him a bit of a chuckle to see that Pen Pen's name was written on one of the doors, but he stopped in shock as he saw the one with Misato's on it. "Um, Misato?" He asked, calmly.

"Yes, Shinji?" The older woman asked, taking the opportunity to leave Asuka fuming for a few seconds before resuming the argument.

"Why does your door say Misato and Kaji Ryouji?" Shinji asked, tentatively.

Asuka stopped dead, a suspicion building at the back of her brain. She grabbed Misato's hand, holding it up to eye level and seeing the ring there. Misato braced for the explosion. Asuka almost complied, but stopped herself just before yelling. She'd known that Misato and Kaji were going out shortly before the attack of the twelfth angel, and should have seen this coming. Sighing, she dropped the older woman's hand. "Congratulations." She said, forgetting the fight that she was going to put up about being put in security barracks and marching into her own room.

Misato and Shinji just looked at each other, unsure of what to do, before shrugging and going into their own rooms to get them set up.

HR.

Approximately half an hour later, a once more male Ranma came down the hall with Rei. The blue haired girl's eyes had a small amount of red around them, but she looked as if she'd mostly regained her composure. "This is where they said our quarters were." He said, looking around.

Rei nodded, looking around as well and spotting the name cards on the doors. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and a small frown was visible on her face as she stepped over to the door to her room. Deliberately, she removed the name card and tore off the white space at the edges.

Ranma merely looked on, unsure, as she walked across to his room. She quickly slid his name card out a bit, ripped off the white space on that end, and slid hers in next to it. "Rei, what are you doing?" He asked, blinking at her.

"I don't wish to be alone right now." Rei said, softly. Ranma considered refusing and simply going into the room she wasn't in, but sighed as he looked into her deep red eyes.

"All right." He said, pulling open the door to the room and stepping in. To his surprise, it was a pretty roomy place, with a couch on one wall and a bed on the other. "I'll stay with you, Rei." He said, dropping the backpack he was still carrying around on the floor and sitting on the couch.

"Thank you." The blue haired girl said, beginning to strip off the school uniform that she'd put on after changing out of her plugsuit earlier.

Ranma looked away for long enough for her to climb into the bed and pull the covers up, before leaning back into the couch and gazing at her for a few moments. "I'll stay with you."

Rei smiled softly as she drifted off to sleep.

END.

* * *

**Chapter 46: Chapter 46 Heaven's Door Part 1**

* * *

Hi again, everyone. Well, here it is. Kaoru Makes his move. This chapter is the second to last of the "Series," since 25 and 26 would be rather short in this universe. After this will come a 2-4 episode long final arc, and AOL will be complete.

Oh, right. then there's the rewrite and sidestories. Meh, this thing's never gunna die.

I hope you like it, and please review!

Chapter 46, Knockin on heaven's door, Part 1.

Shinji Ikari lay in an unfamiliar bed, staring up at yet another unfamiliar ceiling and thinking. He'd started soon after he'd gone to bed, and couldn't stop. This was why he had his SDAT player, to drown out fears and thoughts and help him get to sleep in strange, new environments. Unfortunately, that device was still at Misato's half-crushed apartment, sitting on the dresser in his bedroom.

Rolling over, the fourth child tried to make himself more comfortable in the bed, and shifted his fixed stair from the ceiling to a patch on the far wall. He replayed the events of the day for what seemed like the sixteenth time tonight, and then groaned. "I'm never going to get to sleep." He finally concluded, sitting up and slipping his feet over the edge of the bed.

Putting on the grey pants and white dress shirt he'd been wearing the day before since there was nothing else handy, the brown haired boy slipped out of his bedroom and started walking down the hall. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but perhaps he could tire himself out with wandering, or at least occupy himself with something more substantial than staring at a wall.

As he wandered through the innards of NERV, he reflected that the place looked distinctly creepy with no people around. Normally, he thought that NERV looked pretty deserted, but he supposed he'd never noticed the security guards or technicians who scurried around during the day, looking for breaches or breakdowns. Feeling slightly lonely, the boy started moving towards the central sections of the base, and the EVA cages.

HR.

Kaoru Nagisa stood on the catwalk that ran the width of the EVA cages, gazing evenly at the giant biomechanical beasts that stood in the LCL below him. He had managed to enter NERV easily enough with his pilot's pass card, but now was the hard part.

He sighed. He had truly wanted to stay with the Lilim, to see this very much different world than he had expected, before he initiated the third impact, but… Shaking his head, the seventeenth angel firmed his resolve. Orders were orders, and his angelic soul had been calling out to contact ADAM ever since he'd entered the Geofront the first time.

Looking over the EVAs again, he frowned. Unfortunately, Unit 02 wasn't suitable for his needs at the moment, like it should have been. The pilot of the unit was, if not a very nice person from what he'd got of her, still mentally healthy, and therefore her EVA hadn't retreated into itself to avoid interaction. Unit 00, and to his surprise, Unit 03 also had active souls. Resting his hand against the latter machine, he wondered how it could Synch with its pilot. The being that had been used to create its core had been selected specifically because it was unlikely that most pilots could synchronize with it.

Removing his hand from the black Evangelion, the fifth child moved to the final option. He stared down the horn and into the eyes of Evangelion Unit 01. This unit was the only one that he could gain instant access to, and he knew that he would need to capture the unit almost instantly or the Magi would raise the alarm before he could gain protection. Unit 01's soul wasn't precisely inactive, but its attention was focused far from the Unit itself, and even asleep at the moment.

Stretching out one hand, it began to glow with a soft orange light. "What…?" Came a surprised voice from one of the entrances to the room.

Dropping his hand quickly, before his AT field could completely form, Kaoru spun to see Shinji Ikari standing on the catwalk just inside the door, staring at him in surprise. "Kaoru?" The boy asked. "How did you do that?"

Kaoru considered thinking of some deception, some way to make the fourth child go away so that he could conduct his mission. Unfortunately, SEELE had been too busy training him in the scenario to bother much with the ability to skillfully lie. Making a decision, the angelic boy spoke. "Shinji Ikari." He said, causing the aforementioned boy to jump. "I would suggest that you leave here."

"Huh? what's going on here, Kaoru? It almost looked like you were projecting an AT field like Ranma or Rei do…" He trailed off. "You are an angel, and you knew it, didn't you?" He demanded, accusingly.

Kaoru nodded. "Yes, I knew it." He said. "I am the seventeenth angel, Tabris, and I repeat that you should leave this place, now."

Shinji shook his head. "I can't do that." He said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his cell phone in order to sound the alarm. Kaoru winced, not wanting to do what he was about to. They had described Shinji Ikari to him, as the admirable defender of Tokyo 3, who did his job in spite of the constant pushing and belittlement of every other human around him. He had been someone that Kaoru had longed to meet, to talk to. Raising his hand, the angel said "I am sorry, Shinji." Before projecting an AT field forward, slamming the fourth child through the door he'd come in through, and sending his phone splashing into the LCL of Unit 03's cage.

Turning back, the grey haired boy raised his hand again, and took control of EVA Unit 01. The reaction from the EVA was instant, trying to break his control, but he'd gotten it when it wasn't paying attention and had a firm grip. As almost every alarm in NERV went off, Unit 01 flexed its arms and destroyed the restraint system. The seventeenth angel smiled.

HR.

In her main lab next to the control room in central Dogma, Ritsuko Akagi rubbed at her eyes. Glancing over at the clock, she whistled as she saw that it was 02:30. She'd gotten distracted by a tiny artifact that Kaji had brought in at about 22:00 the night before, and hadn't noticed the time going by. Returning her attention to her microscope, the blonde haired woman looked down at the intricate circuitry of an Anti-AT field generation device. It had apparently been used to control Ranma when SEELE had him captured, which meant that SEELE had the technology to produce these things.

"Yet another reason I'm an idiot." She muttered, sighing. If SEELE had shared this device's technology with the conventional military, they could have managed to research any number of conventional weapons that could penetrate an AT field within a few months, at least. She'd welded the break Kaji had caused with his wire cutters, ensuring that the circuits became complete, and as far as she could tell it was working perfectly. As she was about to go back to trying to figure out how the device worked, the alarms sounded.

Abruptly, the scientist's head shot up and clanged into the metal light blocking hood of the device she was looking through. Cursing, she ran out of the room while rubbing the bump that she'd just gotten, heading to the control center as quickly as possible.

HR.

Asuka looked around the hall that the EVA pilots' rooms were in, confused and just slightly angry. "Where are those idiots?" She demanded, since the alarms had all gone off and herself, Misato, and a rather disheveled Kaji had been the only ones to show up. She threw a glare at the adults who had both emerged from Misato's room, before stomping over to Shinji's and pounding on the door, hard.

Getting no response, the second child reached down and twisted the door handle. To her surprise, Shinji's door swung in easily as she pushed, and she looked around to see that there was no one in the room. "Shinji's gone!" She reported, calling out to Misato who was heading for Ranma's door.

"Damn, Asuka, report to Unit 02. We'll look for him." The major snapped, frowning as she noticed that Ranma's door plate had been altered. 'Well, I guess Rei's in here too.' She muttered, using her set of keys to unlock the door.

Pushing the door open, she heard the sound of Rei trying to calm Ranma down. Quickly entering the room, she saw that the third child was lying on the small couch, thrashing slightly as the first knelt beside him and held his hand. "What's going on here?" She demanded.

"Ranma-kun began to become agitated shortly before the alarms went off." Rei explained, simply. "I can't wake him up."

Misato thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Rei, get to the EVA cages. I'll deal with Ranma."

"But, Major…" Rei started, softly.

"Now!" Misato snapped, annoyed. Kneeling down next to the martial artist, she looked into his wide eyes, seeing a look of emptiness that reminded her of how he'd looked during the escape from SEELE. Growling, she slung him over her shoulder, and headed out of the room. "Kaji, help me here." She said, seeing that the brown haired man had stayed behind.

HR.

"What is going on, Doctor?" Gendo asked, as he walked out onto the command bridge at central Dogma to see that Ritsuko had shoved Maya's night shift replacement out of her chair and was pouring over data quickly.

"An AT field has manifested in the EVA cages, and Unit 01 activated without warning!" The woman reported, trying to get a view of the EVA. Abruptly, she managed it, and the view from a security camera near the EVA cages displayed the Unit stomping across the launch bay, a small form floating next to it.

"What is that?" Gendo asked, pointing at the small form. One of the techs in the room obliged his unspoken order, magnifying the image to show Kaoru floating next to the moving EVA. He softly cursed, before nodding. "It appears that the seventeenth has arrived. Call the pilots, and attempt to shut down the Evangelion." He snapped, falling into his chair.

"They're… on their way to the EVAs." Misato huffed, as she and Kaji came half-running into the room, Ranma slung between them. Behind them, Hyuga, Aoba and Maya charged in to take their places.

"Good." Gendo said, then raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with the third child?"

"I'm not sure." Misato said, as she set Ranma in one of the empty chairs. "I was hoping Ritsuko could tell me that."

The blonde woman moved out of her chair to allow Maya entry, and then threw a questioning glance to Gendo. The older man just nodded, so she hurried over to start examining the pilot. As she did so, Asuka's face appeared on the screen in front of the group.

"All right, what's going on?" The rather sleepy German demanded, from her already filled and secured entry plug.

"Pilot Soryu, the seventeenth angel has appeared and somehow corrupted Unit 01. You are to neutralize both of them." Gendo explained, calmly.

"Sir, Pilot Ikari has been found near the EVA cages. He's unconscious." Hyuga reported, after settling into his seat and bringing up the status displays.

"What of Miss Ayanami?" Gendo asked.

"She's in Unit 00." Maya reported, sounding unsure. "The EVA isn't activating."

"What?" Misato demanded, walking up behind the three technicians. Reaching over and tapping a button on their console, she asked, "Rei? What's wrong?"

The first child appeared on the screen, her face seeming slightly paler than usual, if that was at all possible. "I do not know, Major." She reported. "Unit 00 will not respond."

"Damn it!" Misato cursed. "It's all up to you, Asuka." She muttered, as the red Evangelion started across the launch area after Unit 01.

HR.

Asuka sat in her entry plug, directing Unit 02 after the rapidly disappearing form of the other Evangelion in silence. In her head, she was a little worried about fighting Unit 01, even if she didn't want to admit it. That EVA had done things, both in her presence and on recordings that she'd watched, that were very impressive and very terrifying at the same time. Just as she was about to catch up to the EVA, it vaulted into a shaft, disappearing quickly.

Growling in annoyance, the second child dove after it, hoping that her power cable would be long enough to follow it wherever it was going. As she got to the same level as the other EVA, she stretched Unit 02's legs outward, pressing against the walls and slowing down with the sound of screeching metal. She applied just enough pressure to continue moving at the same speed as the other EVA.

During this maneuver, Unit 01 had seemed to notice her, bringing up its arm in a clawing motion. Asuka responded in kind, blocking Unit 01's lunge with her own EVA's arm, and smirked. "Nice try." She said, lashing out with her other arm and rocking the purple EVA back on its feet.

It was at about that moment that she realized Unit 01 was standing. It wasn't falling, but floating on some sort of invisible platform that was gradually lowering down. Looking around, she saw a small glowing figure that was apparently providing the EVA with its new flight capability. "That must be the angel." She muttered, unsheathing her progressive knife and lashing out at Kaoru's position.

HR.

In the entry plug of Unit 00, Rei Ayanami sat staring at the screens that showed the world around the EVA. "All right, let's try this again." Maya Ibuki said, from the screen in front of her. "Shutting the system down and restarting synchronization."

Rei nodded, as the world outside of the EVA disappeared in a cascade of colors, revealing the grayness of the un-powered plug. "Why can't I synchronize with you, Unit 00?" She asked, trying Ranma's old technique of empathizing with the EVA. Unit 00 didn't respond, but as Rei looked around she saw that her hand was shaking slightly on the control handle. She brought it up to her face, looking at it. "Am I… afraid?" She asked, right before the outside world came flooding back.

"Can you move now?" Maya asked, though it looked from her facial expression as though she already knew the answer.

"I am sorry, Ibuki-san." Rei said.

HR.

"Argh!" Asuka yelled in frustration as her EVA's prog knife was deflected by Kaoru's AT field again. She was putting all of her effort into neutralizing it, but she kept getting distracted by the EVA unit next to the angel which kept trying to attack her.

Unit 01 wasn't nearly as fast or strong as it usually was, but it was still a distraction, and an unwelcome one. Lashing out in frustration, the German redhead buried her knife in the EVA's armor, tearing a long gash down its front. "Get away!" She yelled.

HR.

In central Dogma, Ritsuko frowned as she examined Ranma's semi-conscious form. He'd been twitching and glancing almost as if he was in a seizure, but none of the other signs were present. As she was about to take a measure of his heart rate, having taken off the grey undershirt that he apparently slept in, she watched in astonishment as a long, deep cut formed, running down from his left pectoral to his stomach.

Glancing up, she saw that Asuka had just scored a heavy blow against Unit 01 and cursed. Of course, since this body was an extension of the EVA, he would reflect its damage. Then, it clicked. "It's fighting the angel." She exclaimed, surprised.

"What?" Misato demanded, diverting her eyes from the EVA battle that was taking place in one of the shafts that lead down to Terminal Dogma in order to look at the blonde.

"Unit 01. It's under the angel's control, and if Ranma's a part of the EVA, then he's probably fighting it!" The doctor exclaimed. "That's why he's so incoherent right now. A lot of the EVA's concentration is focused on trying to throw off the angel's control."

Misato just looked at her blankly, before noticing the gash on the pilot's body. "Wait, part of the EVA?" She asked.

Asuka, who had heard all of this through an open comm. Channel to Misato, broke in. "Does that mean the Engelkind's in the entry plug or something?" She asked, slacking off briefly from her attack. She may have wanted to beat the irritating pigtailed boy over the head a few times, but this sounded serious.

"He's not in the entry plug." Ritsuko started explaining, before Asuka's distraction cost her and the angelically controlled EVA lashed out, cutting her umbilical.

"Shit!" The second child exclaimed, turning her full attention back to the fight. Unfortunately, the constant high pressure she had to keep her EVA's legs under in order to stay level with the angel required full power, and she only had a minute left to go.

HR.

Kaoru clenched his teeth, as assaults on his attention came from all sides. It was only about eight hundred meters to the floor of this shaft, and then Terminal Dogma, but he was unsure that he could make it that far. Unit 01 was fighting him much harder than he had expected, making every action he told it to do slow, forced and easy to predict. Adding to that the fact that he had to keep his AT field at almost full power to keep Unit 02 from neutralizing it and stabbing him with its prog knife, and the pressure was mounting.

He only kept himself going with the constant mantra that he must do what he was doing, that the angels must win over humanity; that HE must prevail. His concentration took a severe blow, however, when Unit 02 made an extra-forceful lunge with its prog knife, actually managing to get the tip mere feet away from him before he could stop it.

Just as the angel's concentration was about to break, a 'miracle' happened. Unit 02, whose power cable had been cut almost a minute earlier, suddenly went limp. Its head fell forward, its legs went slack, and it plummeted almost six hundred meters straight down.

Kaoru sighed in relief, having now only to deal with Unit 01's struggles. This was still difficult, but by no means impossible.

HR.

"Come on, come on…" Asuka said, violently pushing on Unit 02's manipulators. The fall had rattled her around in the LCL severely, but now the angel and the other EVA had landed only a couple of meters away, and she desperately needed to move.

She knew that Unit 01 had gone berserk when Shinji needed it to, and she would gladly trade control for just a bit of movement at the moment. "Come on, damn it!" She yelled, as the angel pointed at her EVA.

Unit 01 began to lumber towards her, its movements jerky and slow, but inevitable, as that bastard Kaoru floated off in the other direction. The German pilot screamed curses at the top of her voice, but they did nothing.

As the towering purple form of the other EVA lurched the last few steps towards her beloved Unit 02, Asuka gulped. One hand reached down, slowly but surely, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the end.

END.

And now, the plot is hanging off the edge of a cliff.

* * *

**Chapter 47: Chapter 47 Heaven's Door Part 2**

* * *

Aw, I felt so bad about that cliffhanger that I had to get this out right away. Still, this chap goes a bit out on a limb on at least two occasions, so I'd like some feedback to see how I did.

Misato:(Hits Weebee on the back of the head with her sidearm.) Stop begging for reviews!

Weebee: (Rubbing back of head.) Ow… Anyways, on with the show!

Chapter 47, Knockin on Heaven's Door, Part II.

The large void that was the inside of Unit 01's mind was broken by only a single, brightly lit speck of energy. The haze that had filled it before the absorption of the angel, Iruel, had condensed into that point, indicating that its mind was focused on a single point, a single goal, for the first time in its long existence. This state of affairs had remained for a little over a week now, but it was suddenly interrupted as tendrils of orange energy seemed to flood into the void, weaving a cage around the EVA's consciousness almost as quickly as they appeared.

As it attempted to respond to this sudden intrusion into its mind, Unit 01's consciousness merely bashed against the confines of the AT prison, flashes of the world outside coming to it as it did so. It was breaking out of its restraints, beginning a slow and steady movement into the middle of the EVA cage area. It was then that it identified the force that was doing this.

A young boy in what looked like a copy of Shinji's school uniform, with grey hair cut into a style similar to that of Rei Ayanami, was hovering in the air next to it. "Kaoru." It thought. A moment later, came the second conclusion. "Angel."

The EVA tried to make its arm lash out, to pluck the floating boy from the air next to it and stop him from doing what he was doing, even as it felt one of NERV's control techs, probably Lieutenant Aoba or Ibuki, sending it a power termination signal.

Its internal computers tried to react, to cut the power from its S2 unit to the rest of its body, but found that the core wasn't active. Some external force was powering it.

"Why are you doing this?" A part of it, that which was its human mind and soul, asked into the net that imprisoned it.

The response came back, echoing through its mind as if the angel were in its entry plug. "I require you to defend me while I initiate third impact." Kaoru said, honestly, as he and the massive purple machine jumped down a shaft at the corner of the launch area. The EVA had detected Unit 02 behind it, charging after it, but suppressed this knowledge as best it could so that the angel may be surprised.

Redoubling its efforts to escape as the angel forced it to attack Unit 02, a blue field of energy began to build within the orange, trying to force its way out. It pulsed massively once, distorting the lines of its prison, however nothing happened. "Why do you fight me?" The angel asked. "You, both of your selves, are angels. Surely you know the call of ADAM, and why I must unite with it."

In truth, the EVA did know. The Unit's original consciousness, Yui Ikari, had been too diffuse and faint to feel the pull, and since Ranma had merged with it the pull had gone completely, but several flashes of Ranma's assault on Terminal Dogma when the power went out ran through its mind, ending with the death of the second Rei Ayanami and the pain it had brought.

"I was correct, you did attempt to initiate third impact, Iruel." The angel said, satisfaction clearly evident in its mental voice. That was, of course, until it received the deluge of emotion that Rei's death had evoked.

In the real world, Unit 02 almost succeeded in stabbing Kaoru with its progressive knife, before the angel regained his focus. "Why… do you fight me if you know that humans can cause each other that much pain?" He asked, his confidence evidently shaken.

Several images flashed through the EVA's consciousness, as it couldn't communicate with the invader in coherent words due to how it had trapped its mind. Ranma, fighting furiously against a winged being, fire raining around the edges of a mountain top… All for the sake of a tiny doll tucked into his shirt.

Yui holding a baby Shinji, Gendo standing in front of her, with a large smile on her face as the boy took her finger in his tiny hand.

Rei, her bandages covering her eye and one arm, giving the first faint smile Ranma had ever seen her give in the hospital… Even Asuka, glaring angrily at her as she'd revealed that her synch ratio was higher on the aircraft carrier. "Protect."

"What…?" Kaoru asked, as Unit 02's power finally ran out, sending the machine plummeting to the bottom of the shaft it was fighting Unit 01 in. As his concentration wasn't split any longer, he was able to shut out Unit 01's attempts at communication, and gave it his last order. "Destroy her."

As the controlled EVA began to move towards the downed Unit 02, its consciousness battered even harder at its prison. "No, please, not again. Won't… can't… fail again, Akane, Shinji, Rei… no don't make wont cant wont cant!"

Just as Unit 01 was lowering its hand into position to crush the other machine's head, one word came from the angel that was controlling it. "Lilith?"

HR.

"No, Asuka!" Misato Katsuragi yelled, as the second child's EVA was being menaced by the other. As if it had heard her, Unit 01 suddenly stopped, its hand only a few feet from Unit 02's head, before it began to topple backwards. "What's happening?" she demanded, the EVA crashing to the ground next to its former enemy.

"Unit 01, it just lost all power!" Aoba called out, before his console began to beep frantically. "Wait, its S2 engine is coming online."

"Coming online?" Misato asked, astonished. "Wasn't it online before?"

The tech shrugged helplessly as the large purple mecha began to rise from where it had fallen, its eyes glowing a bright white. As it did so, Ritsuko walked to stand next to Misato. "It's going berserk." She said, slowly.

"Why aren't you taking care of Ranma?" The darker haired woman asked, glaring at her friend. Ritsuko shrugged, pointing back to indicate the black haired boy, who was slumped against the chair he had been sat in. The slow rising and falling of his chest indicated that he was sleeping soundly.

Misato sighed in relief, before turning back to the screen. "What's Unit 01 doing?" She asked, as the EVA briefly bent as if to check on Unit 02's condition, before turning away and walking down the massive corridor Kaoru had entered.

"I believe it is going to stop the angel." Gendo said, his hands in their usual steepled position as he sat in the command chair, overseeing the staff of the room.

The older man was quickly proven right, as the EVA stomped into the room that the huge hall lead into, stopping short at the sight of the seventeenth angel hovering in front of the massive white form of what Misato identified as ADAM, and facing away from it.

"So, you broke free." Kaoru said, flatly. The EVA growled in response, as it unsheathed its progressive knife. The angel merely stared into the massive robot's glowing white eyes, not moving. "I assume that ADAM is not even here, merely Lilith, the mother of humanity." The angel continued, seeming to glare through the EVA unit and at something else.

"What's it saying?" Misato asked, the angel speaking far too quietly for the EVA's sensor pickups to relay to the control center.

Unit 01 seemed not to even hear the boy, rearing back with its progressive knife, and lashing out to slash him in half. Kaoru merely waited for the stroke, not even bothering to unfold his AT field. That was why it surprised all in the control room when the EVA suddenly halted in mid strike. A second later, it did the unthinkable and stood back to its full height, stowing its weapon away in its shoulder compartment.

"Wh… what?" The angel asked, as the EVA's right hand reached out, enclosing him gently.

"What's it doing?" Misato echoed. She was answered, as the Unit stomped to the personnel exit of the room, destroying the door with the poke of one finger and setting the angel on the other side. As Kaoru turned to try and reenter Terminal Dogma, a blue AT barrier sprung up in the doorway.

"Looks to me like the EVA's letting him go." Hyuga piped up, his expression rather similar to that of one who had just been smacked upside the head with something heavy.

"Damn!" Gendo cursed. "Get a security team down there to take the angel out, and is Shinji awake yet?"

"Yes, sir, on both counts." Maya reported, turning from her terminal.

"Good, get him into his EVA." The commander ordered.

HR.

Five minutes later, Gendo was beginning to develop a twitch in his left eye. Unit 03 couldn't get to where Kaoru was without demolishing half of the level around Terminal Dogma, and a second AT barrier had sprung up around the angel when NERV security had tried to shoot him. Since the second barrier was as blue as the first, it was obviously Unit 01's work.

Truthfully, Kaoru was just as confused. His mission could not be completed, so he had invited himself to be destroyed by the Evangelion Unit, not even putting up a fight. "Why don't you strike me?" He demanded, glaring into the face of the EVA, who was crouching next to the door to the area he was trapped in. "You know that I will attempt to destroy mankind, and yet you protect me."

"I don't like to agree with an angel," Misato muttered, throwing an apologetic glance over at the passed out third child, "but Unit 01's JOB is to destroy that thing."

Just as Gendo was about to ask if there had been any luck in the attempt to shut Unit 01 down, Ranma said something. "My job is to protect those who cannot, or will not, protect themselves." He said, just loud enough to be heard around the room. Misato wanted to yell at the boy and ask precisely WHAT his moral beliefs had to do with an overly protective berserk EVA, when Gendo growled.

"So we have an Evangelion Unit which is determined to protect an Angel." He snapped.

Ritsuko's face seemed to gain a pensive expression, before she spoke up. "We may have a way of containing the angel without destroying it." She offered, unsure of how the commander would react.

Gendo considered as well, and then decided. "Do it." He said, leaving it unsaid that, if necessary, he could terminate the angel after the EVA stopped shielding it with its AT field.

HR.

"That's it." The blonde haired doctor said, standing and stepping back nervously from the seventeenth angel, a small laptop in hand. It wasn't actually the angel himself that made her so nervous, but the twelve NERV snipers that were standing behind her, waiting for a single twitch on the boy's part to open fire.

"What is this?" Kaoru asked, looking down to his foot, where a small anklet had been attached.

"It's an Anti-AT field generator. The power goes up in proportion to how much of your AT field you generate." Ritsuko explained. She looked slightly apologetic, since this angel DID look like a fourteen year old boy, as she said her next sentence. "If you try and channel more than a tiny amount of your AT field, it will cause you to dissolve into non-existence."

The angel actually gulped nervously as he was marched out of the short stretch of hall he was in by the NERV security guards. Unit 01 had been returned to its cage approximately ten minutes before, when the new plan for containing Kaoru had been explained to it, and the pilot had woken up shortly thereafter. The last Ritsuko had seen of Ranma, Misato had been trying to chew him out for disobeying orders while completely unaware of precisely how he'd done it.

Running her hand through her hair, the doctor winced at feeling the bump that had appeared there no more than an hour earlier. "This has been one hell of a night." She muttered.

"Are you sure that this will contain the angel?" Gendo's voice came, causing her to jump almost a foot into the air before turning. She had thought that he was still in Central Dogma, ensuring that the EVA units were secure.

"Yes, it will do its job. It works on feedback, and will do its work before he can build enough power to remove it." She frowned. "It will discharge at full capacity and destroy the angel if someone attempts to remove it." She said, distaste filling her final words.

Gendo nodded absently. "Do you believe you can reproduce it?" He asked, evenly.

The woman frowned, thinking. "It's possible. I've got detailed notes and scans of it, but…" She trailed off.

Gendo merely nodded, walking off into the darkness and seeming to fade out.

HR.

As he was walked down the halls of NERV, Kaoru thought. His mission was over and his power sealed. NERV had even given him an easy way out, as simply manifesting his AT field would kill him. He contemplated doing just that, but his willingness to die had weaned since his suicide attempt in front of Lilith. At the time, he had been filled with anger at SEELE for sending him on a wild goose chase that they HAD to know was a wild goose chase, and depression that he'd failed in his mission. Staring down the angry purple EVA hadn't seemed all that hard a thing to do.

Now, as he closed his eyes and brought the image up in his mind, he shuddered. NERV was probably going to confine him, and that was fine. He had many things to think about, not least of which was all of those thoughts and emotions the EVA had shared with him.

He nodded calmly to the guards, causing one of them who was rather new to jump, before stepping into a small, dark cell with the NERV logo on one wall. As the door closed, he slumped down on the bench inside. Yes, he did have a lot to think about.

HR.

NERV's main conference room was filled with a rather strange assortment of people, all milling about in a state of confusion. It had been a day since the last angel had attacked, and no one really knew why Commander Ikari had called them all here.

Ranma, Rei, Shinji and Asuka stood in one corner. The second child was wearing a cast from where her arm had broken during Unit 02's fall down the shaft, and Ranma's chest was bandaged under his borrowed NERV uniform, but they all seemed to be in pretty good spirits. "So, what do you think they called us here for?" Asuka asked, directing the question to anyone who would answer it as she gazed over the room.

Ranma and Shinji shrugged. "I believe that Commander Ikari wishes to say something." Rei said, quietly.

"Yes, but why is everyone here?" Shinji asked, looking from Kaji, to Maya, to the leaders of the Geofront's four main security teams.

"I don't know. Guess it's pretty important." Ranma said, looking nervous as Misato started walking towards them. She hadn't been very happy with him for the past day, since he had gone rogue with Unit 01 and apparently corrupted Rei.

His complaints that it had been Rei who had moved her room's sign onto his door were met with the fact that he was older than she was, and should know better. He tried to inch behind Shinji, but the Major spotted him anyways. To his surprise, she smiled.

"Pretty good get together, huh?" The older woman asked, holding up a can of Yebisu. Normally, NERV regulations prohibited drinking on duty, but there had been a table of refreshments set out.

"You don't think this is a little strange?" Shinji asked, noting that the Major was just a little drunk at the moment. "I mean, my father did organize this thing."

Misato shrugged. "Yeah, never knew the commander could throw such a good party!" She said, happily, before wandering off.

The pilots just groaned, and Ritsuko, who had been standing nearby and privately agreeing with everything Shinji had said, rubbed her forehead. The room went silent, however, as Commander Ikari entered, a rather confused vice-commander Fuyutsuki following.

He walked up to the front of the room, setting down a small case full of papers, and knocked on the central table's surface for attention. Looking over the group, he ensured that everyone was there before speaking. "As you are all aware, an angel infiltrated the Geofront yesterday, and was stopped by the Evangelions." He started, getting straight to the point.

"What you may not know is that it was the final angel. The angel attacks are over." The commander waited for a few minutes, and wasn't disappointed by the shocked silence, or the tentative celebration afterwards. The pilots just gaped at each other until the celebration had run its course, unsure of how to feel. "The angels were not our final opponent." Gendo continued, once he was confident that he could be heard again.

Clicking a button, the man in the reflective glasses caused a screen behind him to light up, showing the SEELE logo. "This organization, known as SEELE, has been manipulating events for a very long time to ensure that third impact occurs, though under the control of mankind, rather than the angels. NERV was, in fact, a key component in their plans to initiate the "Human Instrumentality Project," a controlled third impact that would 'ascend' humanity to a new level of awareness."

At this, several disgruntled sounding mutters ran through the crowd, but were quelled by Gendo's steely glare from behind his glasses. "I, as the commander of NERV, have decided to reject this plan for a controlled third impact, and fulfill NERV's other, more public purpose. We are to use all means at our disposal to end the angelic threat, and prevent another disaster such as the second impact."

"But sir, I thought all of the angels were defeated." Kaji spoke up, already knowing full well what the answer to this question was, but wanting to see how Gendo would react.

"Yes, the angels are gone, however…" Gendo said, clicking the button again and causing the slide to switch to a view of a large white Evangelion. Its head was longer and more rounded than any of NERV's EVA units, and it had large white wings sticking out of its back. "SEELE has its own group of mass production EVA units, and will use them and conventional force to capture or destroy NERV."

From the back, Asuka grimaced at the sight of the mass production EVAs. In her opinion, they weren't nearly as elegant and powerful as even Unit 00, let alone 02.

"The issue here is that we will be fighting conventional forces as well as the Evangelions. We WILL be attacking human opponents." Gendo said, gauging the reactions around the room. Shinji paled noticeably, and looked like he wanted to say something, but held it back. Gendo seemed to notice this, as he frowned. "I am telling you all of this now, because NERV needs to be prepared for the attack whenever it comes." He said.

The room abruptly began to fill with person to person chatter, but it was quelled by Gendo's upraised hand. "If you do not wish to fight with our forces against SEELE, you may leave. You will be taken to the remains of the second branch at Matsashiro, and hidden there until the beginning of the battle. This is a battle for the fate of the human race, and we are noticeably outnumbered in both EVAs and troops. I will not have pilots or troops deserting in the middle of the battle." His glare was hard enough that several people started shaking, as he looked around the room.

No one raised their hands to inform him that they wanted to leave. It was unknown whether this was due to devotion to NERV's cause or fear of the commander in some cases, but no one raised a hand.

Gendo nodded in un-concealed satisfaction, before going into more detail on what he expected SEELE to be fielding. When they came, NERV WOULD be ready.

END.

Okay, Cue "Fry Me To The Moon." Next up, "The End of Angel Of Light," multi-part chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 48: Chapter 48 End of AOL, Part I**

* * *

Well, here it is. The start of the final arc. Sorry this chapter's kind of slow, but things will get more exciting next time.

Well, I'm done ranting, so enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review.

Chapter 48, End Of Angel Of Light, Part I.

The door to the darkened room creaked open, causing its only occupant to look up and see who had come. Dr. Akagi had come periodically to make sure that the Anti-AT anklet wasn't having any adverse effect on him, and all four of the other children had also visited once, but the one who stood in the door was a surprise.

"Commander Ikari?" Kaoru asked, curiously.

The man simply nodded, stepping into the room and sitting down on a bench across from Kaoru. "I want to ask you a few questions." He said, levelly.

"You want me to tell you all I know of SEELE's plans." The boy said, simply. At Gendo's nod, he shook his head. "I know very little about them, myself." He confided.

Gendo frowned. "Are you willing to tell me what you do know?"

Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "This doesn't seem like your style, commander." He commented. "I was informed that, should you capture me, I would likely be tortured for information. I was therefore given very little. I found this precaution unreasonable given that I could break out of any prison with my AT field and angelic abilities, but…" He shrugged, indicating his leg with a nod of his head.

"As I said, are you willing to tell me what you do know?" Gendo repeated, not showing any emotion at the seventeenth angel's derailing of the conversation before.

Kaoru considered for a moment. He wasn't being tortured, threatened or even yelled at. The commander merely needed information, and was asking if he would provide what little he had. Given the fact, only recently realized by him, that SEELE's version of the third impact would probably not serve the interests of the angels, he shrugged. "I will tell you what I can."

"Good." Gendo said, as he removed a small voice recorder from his uniform pocket.

HR.

"Fire." Ritsuko ordered, standing behind the large artillery piece she'd requisitioned for this test. The barrel heaved back as a cloud of smoke flew out of the muzzle, and she was thankful for her noise canceling headset as the 155 mm shell shot through the air. A flash of blue rippled through the air in front of it as the tiny channels that had been etched into its sides with laser precision canceled out the AT field, and it slammed into the target set up down range, obliterating it instantly.

The doctor smiled in satisfaction, before a voice came crackling over her headset. "You done firing at me now?" Ranma asked, from the Evangelion Unit that was sitting next to the range.

Ritsuko actually laughed, for the first time in the past week. It had been a tense time since Gendo had begun preparations for SEELE's attack, and she hadn't slept in a couple days in order to prepare the prototype for the AT piercing shell. There were many bugs to work out of it still, as had been shown by the fact that that shell had been the last of a batch of twenty, and the only one to penetrate Unit 01's AT field, but she was just glad she was making progress. "Yes, Ranma. Return Unit 01 to the EVA cages." She finally said, making a few notes on a clipboard.

The giant biomecha nodded its head, standing from its crouching position and stomping off towards one of the recovery shafts. The doctor dismissed the several techs who had moved the howitzer she'd been using for the test into position, and turned to return to her own lab. She was caught short when she saw the pale form of Rei Ayanami standing next to her car.

"Rei?" She asked, trying not to show her surprise as she climbed into the driver's side of the car. "Do you want a ride back to the Geofront?"

"I wish to talk with you, doctor." Rei said, sliding into the passenger seat. "I also need to get back to the Geofront, however."

Ritsuko nodded uneasily, starting the engine and moving the vehicle out onto the deserted street. The air was filled with an uneasy silence, until she broke it. "So, what did you want to talk to me about, Rei?"

Rei stiffened. "I wanted to ask you…" She started, pausing for a moment. "How were my spares destroyed?"

Ritsuko's hand jerked on the wheel, but she quickly regained control, shooting a nervous glance at the first child out of the corner of her eye. 'Does she know?' She wondered. "There was an accident. The LCL was compromised with a contaminant from one of the other labs." She said, repeating the story that she'd prepared in case Gendo asked for details.

"I see." Rei said, nodding. She knew that the doctor was nervous about something, but was unsure what.

"Why do you ask?" Ritsuko asked, both because she wanted to see if Rei knew what she had done, and because the girl honestly seemed disturbed.

Rei sighed. "Dr. Akagi, I'm sure you do not know what its like, knowing that there are dozens of replacement bodies that you can inhabit if yours is destroyed." She started.

Ritsuko blinked. Yes, she had to admit that Rei's situation had certainly been unique, but she didn't see where she was going. Staying silent, she simply listened to what the blue haired girl had to say. "I… am apprehensive now that they have been destroyed." Rei confided, quietly.

Ritsuko looked into the young girl's eyes, seeing the glimmer of nervousness in them. She hadn't expected this kind of consequence to her actions when she'd destroyed the clone bodies. "That's why you couldn't synchronize with Unit 00 during the last angel attack." She said, suddenly.

Rei nodded. "Since the city has been evacuated, I am seeking out the closest thing to psychological treatment that I can receive, in hopes of being battle ready by the time of the SEELE attack."

Ritsuko rubbed the side of her head. Why, exactly, did everyone in NERV think that she was a doctor of everything? "Rei, I…" She started, unsure of what to say.

"Please, doctor." Rei returned, some emotion returning to her voice.

Ritsuko sighed. She'd apparently dealt this girl a severe psychological blow inadvertently, and possibly stripped NERV of one of its operational EVA units. She may as well try and fix the problem. "All right." She said, pulling the car off to the side of the road.

HR.

"Hmm, how's it look, lieutenant?" Misato asked, looking over Maya Ibuki's shoulder at the display screen on her console, where Shinji and Asuka were sitting in their entry plugs.

This had been the third synch test in the past four days, and the two looked all the worse for it. "Pilot Ikari's hovering around ninety two percent, just like last time. Pilot Soryu has dropped to eighty nine, but she's also rather agitated at the moment."

Nodding, the major picked up the microphone that transmitted her voice into the plugs and spoke. "Asuka, calm down. You're synch rate is dropping."

"I'll say its dropping!" The German redhead snapped, irritated. "We've been in here for two hours now."

Misato sighed. "I know. Just go a little longer, and calm down." She could actually sympathize with the pilot, since she, herself was getting tired of staring at Synch test results.

"Why isn't the Engelkind here?" The girl asked. "And where's Rei?"

"Ranma's helping with a test that Ritsuko's conducting, and…" She stopped for a second. "I have no idea where Rei is." She finished, sheepishly. "Besides, you know that Ranma's synch rate data hasn't been reliable since the fourteenth angel." She frowned. She couldn't figure out why the pigtailed martial artist seemed to have pegged the synchronization scale at a solid 400, but Ritsuko seemed to take it as a given.

The second child merely grumbled incoherently, saying several things in German that, even with her reasonably strong grasp of the language, Misato couldn't understand. This was a good thing, since if she had understood them she would have been badly offended. At the rate things were going, she almost wished that SEELE would attack and get things over with.

In the entry plug of Unit 03, Shinji simply sat quietly. Unlike Asuka, he actually liked this time in the synch tests. It gave him a chance to think. Things had changed drastically since the week before. The EVA pilots weren't training to fight angels any longer, but other EVAs and whatever else that was massed against them. They'd been put through refreshers on the use of the EVAs weapons, hand to hand combat drills with Ranma and others, and even a crash course on loading and firing a standard issue NERV sidearm. Thankfully, they hadn't actually issued them one of those, but the mere fact that they were trained in the proper use of normal firearms made the fourth child uneasy.

"Shinji, are you listening?" Misato asked, cutting into his thoughts.

"Huh?" He asked, his head shooting up as he looked rapidly around.

"I said the test was over. You can come out now." Misato explained, trying not to let the brown haired boy's confused expression make her laugh.

"Right… Thanks." Shinji said, ejecting his entry plug.

HR.

The next two weeks passed in a flurry of activity. All of NERV was fortifying for the coming events. The pilots trained, Dr. Akagi worked with Rei and continued to research her AT penetrating weapon project, and the remaining engineers reinforced the Geofront to withstand a siege. Unfortunately, other forces were moving in the shadows.

HR.

"NERV has secured another shipment of ordinance." One of the twelve monoliths spoke, as they all floated in the darkness of the conference chamber.

"They are obviously preparing for an assault, and Ikari knows that Nagisa was the final angel." Another said, sourly. "Given that our spy has gone silent and Ikari hasn't responded to our demands for a conference, we must assume that NERV has gone rogue."

"Yes, but what action should we take?" Another voice asked, sounding thoughtful.

"We attack them now!" Called out an angry sounding voice, before going on to explain. "Tokyo 3 is a fortress city. We must not allow Ikari to fortify it any further, since we will inevitably have to assault it."

"Three of our Evangelion Units have not been completed yet."

"That doesn't matter, we have to strike now or all is lost!" The angry one claimed.

"I agree." Came Keel's voice, from the SEELE 1 monolith. "We will commence the instrumentality project ourselves, and usher in a new age for mankind."

Though there was some grumbling, all of the members of the SEELE council eventually agreed.

HR.

"Oof." Ranma called, as a spin kick from his opponent crashed into his stomach. Picking himself up off of the floor, he grimaced as he rubbed the contact point. "Kinda hard for a spar, wasn't it?" He asked.

Rei let out a small smile from her side of the mat in the middle of NERV's main gym. "Are you saying that I am too strong for you?" She asked.

Ranma grunted. "Okay, I get it. I'll hold back less." He said, squaring off against her again. The next match ended rather differently, as the blue haired girl found herself in an arm lock, pressed against the floor. "You give up?" Her opponent asked, grinning down at her.

Rei didn't respond, leaning forward and locking lips with the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma's eyes widened, and he was distracted just long enough for Rei to loosen the hold and roll out from under him. "Hey, that was a dirty trick!" He objected, a blush dominating most of his face.

"I believe that your fighting style is called 'anything goes,' is it not?" Rei responded, simply. Ranma just sputtered, causing her to ask something else. "Perhaps you need some air?"

Ranma managed to regain his composure, and was about to respond in the negative when he realized that the two had been cooped up in NERV HQ for about a week and a half by this point, with the exception of the few times they went out into the city in their EVAs. "Why not?" He asked.

Rei seemed to consider, then nodded. As the two left the gym, they reached out and held hands.

As the two walked down the hall and out to the Geofront entrance, Asuka glanced over to them from where she and Shinji were working on school work. "Look at the happy couple go by." She quipped.

Shinji merely shrugged noncommittally. He was still just slightly wierded out by the fact that Rei was his half sister, and hadn't really talked to either of them in a while.

"I wish Misato hadn't told us we had to continue with school." Asuka continued, resuming the long string of little gripes that seemed to keep her entertained during the boredom and turning her gaze back to the book she was reading.

"It's not that bad." Shinji objected, knowing that the girl wanted someone to bounce said complaints off of. "Besides, it's about the only normal thing we do around here." He muttered, hopefully too softly for her to hear.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing." Shinji replied, burying himself back into the pages of his book.

HR.

Misato popped open yet another can of coffee, gulping it down instead of beer as she paced behind the three console techs.

"Major, are you sure you don't want to take a break?" Hyuga asked, glancing nervously over his shoulder as the older woman fidgeted. She had been getting unbearable over the past week, and he actually welcomed those times when Commander Ikari was staring holes into his back by this point.

"I'm fine, lieutenant." Misato snapped, taking another sip from her can. She had been getting tenser as the weeks had dragged on, and at the moment she was stretched to her breaking point. Even the pilots had taken a few breaks, in fact Ranma and Rei were currently out in the city getting some fresh air, but she had seemed to rededicate her life to ensuring that everything was ready.

Ritsuko had once speculated that this was because, unable to leave NERV and go home, she was stuck in the 'serious' side of her personality. No one had had the courage to mention this to the Major, however.

"Major, the Magi have just tagged something as important." Maya said, turning to face the high strung woman.

"Let's see it." Misato said, walking behind the other tech's shoulder. Maya obliged, punching up a news feed on the main screen. It showed a shot of Unit 01 fighting the fourteenth angel, and had 'NERV Crisis' written under it.

"Yes, the special agency NERV has been declared a terrorist entity by the United Nations. Earlier, in an emergency meeting of the UN security council, a vote was held on whether to send in a peacekeeping force to disperse the formerly UN Sanctioned special agency, after it refused to disarm of its own free will. The vote passed with only one negative vote, the Japanese government. Correspondent Takahashi has m…" Misato pressed the button to mute the feed, and cursed.

"They never asked us to disarm!" She said, angrily. "What the hell's going on?"

She turned, hearing the door to the room open, and saw Gendo walk in. "It has begun." He said, gravely. "Call in all of the EVA pilots, we don't have much time."

"Y… Yes, sir." Misato stuttered, the impact of what had just started sinking in as the room began to buzz with activity.

END.

* * *

**Chapter 49: Chapter 49 End of AOL, Part II**

* * *

Misato: sorry folks, weebee wanted to put a funny opening here, but i tired him out, so enjoy!

Audience(Whistles)

Misato: Not like that! (Wanders off muttering about perverts.)

Chapter 49, End of Angel of Light, Part II.

"Hey dad, come quick!" Kensuke Aida yelled, his voice echoing through the small apartment his father had managed to rent out in Tokyo 2.

"What's wrong, son?" Daisuke asked, looking half asleep as he wandered out of the apartment's single bedroom. Seeing that Kensuke was staring avidly at the TV, Daisuke growled. "If you called me out here for another of those military hardware documentaries…" he started.

"No, look!" Kensuke said, excitedly.

Daisuke stopped short of looking away as he saw that the screen showed what looked like the outskirts of Tokyo 3, with an image of the NERV logo in the corner. Some field correspondent was speaking into a microphone. "What's going on?" He asked.

"They say that NERV's been declared a terrorist organization and they're going to pacify it!" Kensuke said, his voice caught somewhere between excitement and anger.

"Hmm…" Daisuke said, frowning. Sitting down on the couch behind his son, he began to follow the report.

HR.

The city of Tokyo 3 seemed to shake in its foundations as the opening shots of the final battle rang out. The echoing explosions of several dozen high velocity shells slamming into buildings caught the attention of two EVA pilots, who were sitting in a park in the center of the city.

Looking up, Ranma frowned. "That didn't sound good." He muttered, studying the skyline for any smoke or fire. After he said this, both of their phones beeped. Lifting them out of their pockets, they both saw a single line of text written on the screen. "Attack has begun."

"We have to get to headquarters." Rei said, before starting towards her destination at a distance eating run. Ranma quickly joined her, and they tore through the streets as if the forces of hell were after them.

As they rounded the final corner to the nearest entrance into the Geofront, they almost stopped. Blocking the gate was a group of several dozen men wearing BDU's, each holding an automatic rifle with under-slung grenade launcher.

"Damn." Ranma said, before scooping Rei up in his arms. She looked slightly surprised for a moment, before a blue barrier formed around the two of them and they went charging through the roadblock, bullets causing the AT field to ripple violently.

HR.

"The second and fourth children are on their way to the EVA cages, and we've just detected the third's AT field at one of the Geofront's entrances." Aoba reported, as the crew of the Central Dogma control room went about giving combat orders to the several teams of NERV security that had been spread throughout the complex.

"Good." Misato said, still pacing back and forth behind the three lieutenants. "How far into the base has the UN force penetrated?"

"They're through to the second level, ma'am." Hyuga reported, quickly.

Misato nodded. Shinji and Asuka's path to their EVAs was clear, and she was going to have to assume that Ranma and Rei could take care of themselves for the moment. "Tell the security teams to move back to the fifth layer, and hold at the designated points. Then prepare to release bakelite into the first, second and third levels once the children are clear!"

"Yes ma'am." All three techs reported. Behind them, Gendo smiled. He knew there was a reason he'd appointed Misato as NERV's strategic officer, and she was showing her worth now.

HR.

"Shinji winced as yet another explosion caused the hall to shake slightly. "What are they doing up there?" He wondered, unsure of what kind of weaponry you would need to cause vibrations all the way down in the Geofront.

"Shut up and keep going!" Asuka called back, looking over her shoulder at the fourth child and giving him an annoyed glare. Turning forward again, she jerked herself to the side just in time to avoid slamming into a wall.

Quickly getting her bearings, she continued towards the EVA cages, which were rather close by at this point.

HR.

"Major, Pilots Ikari and Soryu have reached the EVA cages." Hyuga reported, relieved.

"Good. Prepare to…" Misato started, before several alarms started going off throughout the room. "What's happening?" She demanded, glaring around at the red octagonal warning messages that were springing up on half of the screens.

"Ma'am, the Magi, someone's trying to seize control of them!" Maya reported, typing frantically at her station.

"I believe this is where I come in." Ritsuko called, from a position in the well below the main bridge, where the three Magi sat. She had a laptop on her knees, a set of cords trailing into the innards of all three of the giant computers.

"How long until we have the Magi back?" Misato asked, suddenly feeling rather useless as the equipment she'd been using to coordinate the battle was otherwise occupied.

"There are multiple sets of MAGI level computers trying to break our security." Ritsuko responded, not averting her eyes from her laptop. "It's going to take some time. Maya, change the encryption cycle on all outside ports to every 15 seconds." If she'd had the concentration available at the moment, the doctor would have been cursing herself for not thinking of this strong a network based attack, but the enemy attacking the Magi had seemed very unlikely.

"Yes, ma'am." The technician said, as Misato sighed in annoyance.

"Will we be able to launch the EVAs?" Misato demanded.

"We can trigger the catapults manually." Hyuga offered. "It'll be messy, but we can get them up there."

"Good, do it." Misato ordered.

HR.

Units 02 and 03 came to the surface of Tokyo 3 in a rather unconventional manner. Where normally a building or section of street would slide away to reveal the EVA launch shaft, this time the sections of street in question seemed to suddenly fly several hundred meters into the sky, as the EVAs came flying out of the shafts, landing several meters away from them.

"I think I'm gunna be sick." Shinji moaned, trying not to think of the ride he'd just taken. Asuka secretly agreed, but didn't want to seem weak.

The two EVA pilots were jolted out of their attempts to keep their lunch from mimicking their Mecha by the feeling of several low yield missiles slamming into their EVAs armor. "Damn it!" The German cursed, her AT field flickering into place just in time to deflect the remaining shots. "That hurt!"

Shinji nodded in agreement, wincing as he looked down to see a large section of Unit 03's shoulder armor blown off. Turning quickly, he went to one of the weapons caches and removed a pallet rifle from it. Turning, he hesitated at the thought of firing on human beings for a moment, until another salvo of countering fire crashed into his fully active AT field. Pressing down the trigger, the fourth child sent a stream of bullets into the line of tanks that had been firing on them.

HR.

Rei flinched as yet another grenade detonated nearby, clinging onto Ranma for dear life. She was currently petrified. Dr. Akagi had helped her a great deal with her nervousness over piloting Unit 00 and fear of her own death, but ground combat with high explosives and no fifty meter tall mecha to protect her was a totally different matter.

As the two pilots tore down a flight of stairs that connected the third level to the fourth, she heard the reassuring sound of a reinforced steel door slamming down behind them. She could also swear that she could hear a liquid rushing noise, but dismissed it as they burst out into the next hallway.

At that moment, she felt something. She wasn't entirely sure what that something was, but it tickled at the back of her mind. Apparently, Ranma had felt it too, since he slowed to a stop and looked around curiously. It was a good thing there were no enemy soldiers around here, since he had let down his AT field in his distraction.

Concentrating, the pigtailed boy took off again, delivering Rei to a group of NERV security who were falling back towards the center of the complex. "Can you get her to the EVA cages?" He asked, looking the men over and smiling as he saw a familiar face.

"Sure, but where are you going?" The team leader, a man who Ranma had sparred against routinely since he came to NERV, asked.

"I'm not sure." Ranma admitted. "But tell Commander Ikari that ADAM's here."

The man blinked, unsure of what the EVA pilot was talking about, but shrugged. "All right, Miss Ayanami, let's go."

Rei was about to object, but the sound of an explosion from the direction that she and Ranma had come made her reconsider. "Be careful, Ranma." She said, looking at the martial artist worriedly.

"'course I will." He said, grinning back as he took off in the other direction.

HR.

Kaoru looked up as the door to his prison opened once again, though this time it was different. For one, it had been forcibly blown open by some sort of explosive charge. "Tabris." Came a voice, causing the boy's eyes to widen.

"Chairman Keel?" Kaoru asked, astonished as the form of the leader of SEELE marched into the darkened room.

"Yes, you are needed." The man said, gesturing out of the room with one hand. Tabris noticed idly that the other was heavily bandaged, and had a red stain near the wrist.

"In the same way I was needed to invade NERV and attempt to initiate third impact with the wrong target?" The angel asked, a rather annoyed tone clearly audible in his voice.

Keel didn't say anything, merely unwrapping the bandage from around his hand. Even through the anti-AT field that dulled his extra senses, the seventeenth angel knew what the small lump of flesh that had been grafted onto the man's arm was. He lunged forward, instinct winning out over common sense, but was stopped in his tracks by a black clothed man who stepped out from behind the chairman of SEELE and cuffed him on the side of the head.

"Now, Tabris, I can't allow you to do that, yet." Keel said, before leaving the room. "Come."

The seventeenth angel reluctantly nodded, following the man out of the room and down the hall. He knew that Keel was likely manipulating him yet again, but if he could simply get in contact with ADAM, he felt it wouldn't matter.

HR.

"Gah!" Asuka yelled, swinging one foot around to knock two jet attack craft out of the air. "Why won't they stop coming?" She demanded, angrily.

"I think this is an all out offensive." Shinji said, from his position about a kilometer away where he was dealing with a heavy armored column. Since they were large enough, he'd taken to crushing the barrels of the artillery in order to render them useless, along with knocking a few of the smaller tanks over, or removing their turrets. The UN troops who were manning them were rather pissed off that millions of dollars in military hardware had been rendered useless so easily, but were also incredibly relieved that the monster they'd been fighting had stopped there.

Trembling slightly from his position inside the unmoving hulk that had once been a main battle tank, the commander of the armor group reached into his uniform pocket, withdrawing a small radio. "This is captain Armstrong of the fifth, we've been completely demolished!" He said, shakily.

HR.

In an office in the middle of the new diet building in Tokyo 2, an elderly looking man quickly glanced at a set of paperwork. It was a report on the 'negotiations' with NERV. The UN had apparently demanded its shutdown more than a week ago, and had moved forces in to put pressure on commander Ikari. He had his doubts about the EVAs opening fire on the UN troops, but The fifth tank division had been destroyed, along with most of the nearby military base's detachment of aircraft. Frowning, the man reached over and picked up a phone.

Dialing, he spoke into it. "Yes, I'm afraid it's come to that. No, I know that we opposed this operation, but if NERV obliterates the entire UN strike force, they will have been proven right, and we will look like fools. Yes… launch the delivery aircraft now."

Hanging up the phone, he looked out of one of the two massive windows in his office. "I'm sorry Kaji, but I did all I could." He muttered, sadly. It was really too bad. Kaji Ryouji had been one of Japanese Intelligence's best agents.

HR.

Misato sighed in relief as the red warning messages vanished from the screens around central dogma, replaced with a single red screen that read "666 Firewall active."

"Are the Magi secure?" She demanded, looking down at Ritsuko.

The doctor nodded. "We've got about twelve hours before they can hit us through that." She said, gesturing to the screen and slumping tiredly in her seat. Programming a heuristically adaptive firewall program in less than twenty minutes, though not as impossible as she'd originally thought since she'd just done it, was mind-bogglingly tiring.

"Report on the EVAs and our forces." Misato asked, returning to her restored command and control net.

"We've been pushed back to the tenth level, and lost some of team Delta." Hyuga responded. "Team Alpha's bringing Rei to the EVA cages."

"Where's Ranma?" The major asked, confused.

"They say that he ran off somewhere." The tech responded, shrugging. "They also said that he told them to tell the commander that 'ADAM's here.'"

Gendo paled noticeably at his seat, but fortunately, since everyone was facing forward, no one noticed. Of course, while the Magi had been preoccupied repelling the hacking attack, a lot of their other functions had been knocked offline. "Is there a group inside of our defense perimeter that we can't identify?" He asked, quickly.

"Yes, sir. There are two. One's making its way to the EVA cages, and the other's just passed the holding cells." Hyuga reported.

As Misato was about to order team Alpha to intercept the intruders after they delivered Rei, Aoba looked up from his console. "What the hell?" He demanded, loudly.

"What is it?" She asked.

"There's a high altitude bomber coming in. Probably carrying an N2 mine!" The tech reported, panicked.

"Shoot it down!" Misato ordered, a tinge of fear entering her expression as well.

HR.

In the middle of Tokyo 3, several anti-air missile batteries opened their armored covers, shoving missile after missile skyward as the Magi sent them targeting data. The bomber wasn't the most maneuverable aircraft ever built, but its high altitude and skilled crew made it very hard to hit. Eventually, one missile connected with its tale section, sending it spiraling towards the ground, but not before it released its cargo.

"What…" Captain J. R. Armstrong said, leaning out of the top hatch of his immobile battle tank. "That's an… N2 mine?" Cursing, he dove back inside, slamming the hatch closed and hoping that their distance from the impact point would mitigate the shockwave. "Hang on, guys. They're dropping the big one." He reported, just before the immense explosion went off, and the whole world went white.

END.

* * *

**Chapter 50: Chapter 50 End of AOL, Part III**

* * *

To start off with, this chapter is… quite intense. I hope you enjoy it, and request that you NOT read the end notes until the chapter is over. Having said that, I also request that you DO in fact read the end notes, no matter how you happen to feel at the time.

Enjoy the chapter readers, and remember, I am not quite insane enough to piss all of you off permanently.

Chapter 50, End of Angel Of Light, Part III.

"What… was that?" Shinji asked, the blinding light fading away as Unit 03 stood braced, its AT field flickering in front of his face. He hadn't noticed that it had turned a strange greenish color, but that wasn't important at the moment. What was was that the EVA was standing at the edge of a massive pit, the bottom of the Geofront, and NERV HQ, clearly visible in its center.

"N2 mine?" Asuka guessed, from her side of the massive blast crater. Since Unit 02 had been standing over the Geofront at the time, she was standing on a promontory that projected over the massive crater, defended from destruction from her own AT field.

"But why the hell would they drop an N2 while their own troops were here?" Shinji objected, anger present in his voice for once. Looking quickly behind him, he saw that the tanks he'd earlier disabled were mostly all right, only a few on the outer edges of his AT shield having taken the brunt of the shockwave.

"That's not important right now." Came Gendo's voice, sounding tense from the other end of the communications line. "The Mass Production Evangelions will most likely strike soon. Proceed into the Geofront and reconnect to main power."

"Right." The pilots said, though Shinji did so reluctantly, knowing his father was right but still surprised at his disregard for life.

HR.

In NERV's command room, about half of the techs were picking themselves up off of the floor, including Misato and Ritsuko. "Damn, haven't they heard of moderation?" Hyuga quipped, climbing back into his seat.

"Apparently not." Misato said, wiping off a small layer of dust that had accumulated on her vest. "Report."

"Well, pilot Ayanami's arrived at the cage." Aoba offered, scanning his status displays.

"Good, get her into Unit 00. If what the commander said is true, Shinji and Asuka will need all the help they can get." Misato said.

"Right." Maya replied, tapping in a set of commands that would send the first child up one of the few still operational launch shafts.

Commander Ikari merely sat in his seat, worried, but unable to do anything about it. At the moment, there was at least one angel heading for Terminal Dogma, where Adam and Lilith were probably both gathered. "Order the Alpha team to go after the intruders who are heading for Terminal Dogma." He snapped.

"Heading for Terminal Dogma?" Misato asked, looking questioningly at the three techs.

Aoba quickly punched in a few keys. "Yeah, he's right." He confirmed.

Misato nodded. "Intercept them." She ordered.

HR.

Ranma ran through the halls of NERV, the sensation in the back of his head calling him to the deepest, darkest levels of the Geofront. He had no intention of causing the third impact, but he wanted to know why the hell Adam and Lilith were that close together, and to make damned sure that nothing ELSE was going to cause the end of the world.

Turning around the final corner before the entrance to Terminal Dogma, he saw that there were two armed guards standing there. They were definitely not NERV security, wearing black commando gear and a set of night vision goggles pushed up on their foreheads. As they saw him, they raised their assault rifles, aiming for his torso, and pulled the trigger. As before, his AT field deflected the bullets easily, causing their eyes to widen.

He hit them hard, and he hit them fast. The blows were non-lethal, but they hit the ground like sacks of potatoes. Stopping in front of the door, he frowned. It was thick, made of solid re-enforced steel, and he was sure that he didn't have the security clearance with his ID card to work the card reader next to it. The door to Rei's biolab had been reasonably light compared to this thing.

Sighing, he began to build an aura around his body. This could take a while.

HR.

Kaoru stood in the middle of Terminal Dogma, directly under Lilith and being held by two of Keel's infiltration team. "So, why are you helping me to achieve third impact?" He asked, his eyes narrowing. "And why did you bring me here to do it?"

Keel smiled. "That, you will find out in due time." He said, before a tremendous explosion distracted him. Turning, he heard a second explosion, and saw the personnel access door to the room shake visibly. "Hmm, it seems a second guest has arrived." He commented, a slight smile growing on his lips, as his unreadable visor covered eyes peered at the metallic object.

Kaoru looked confused. If NERV security was coming, why would Keel be so casual about waiting for them? Then again, he thought, hearing the explosive sound again, that didn't sound much like NERV security. He was proven correct a moment later, when the door gave with a groan, collapsing to reveal the form of the third child, a blue aura dissipating into the air as he walked through the door.

"Ah, Iruel, so glad to see you." Keel commented.

"You!" Ranma growled, taking up a fighting stance and manifesting his aura again. He remembered this man. He'd locked him in a tank and experimented on him with gleeful abandon. Perhaps worst of all, he'd threatened an innocent in order to make him do something that, truthfully, he REALLY didn't want to do.

"I wouldn't come any closer to me, Iruel." The chairman of SEELE said, holding up one hand to reveal the first angel grafted into it, one white eye staring, unblinking, out.

Ranma visibly turned green. "What… that's Adam?" He asked.

Keel nodded. "Yes, Iruel, and with him, Tabris and Lilith I shall use the third impact to create a new humanity." He grinned cruelly. "While you watch, unable to come anywhere near me for fear of causing third impact." Snorting, he turned back to Kaoru. "Truly, that one is.. not terribly intelligent, despite having two lifetimes worth of knowledge in its head."

"You are going to… use me?" Kaoru asked, his eyes narrowing. "How?"

Keel continued smiling, as he began to explain.

HR.

Asuka and Shinji stood in front of NERV HQ, their EVAs hooked directly into umbilicals that connected from the building itself. These had never been used before, simply because no angel had ever gotten this close to its goal. "Do you see anything yet?" Asuka asked, watching the sky.

"No, nothing." The fourth child reported, frowning. "I just wish they would show up and get this over with." He grumbled.

"What? The timid Shinji wants a fight?" The second child replied, teasing. "I think the world is ending."

"I… I don't want this fight." Shinji muttered. "I just want this all to be over."

Asuka was about to make another pointed comment in reply, but stopped herself. "So do I." She admitted, softly. The moment of understanding silence was broken a moment later, however, as Misato's voice came over their EVAs' comm. Systems.

"We've got eight high altitude gliders coming in fast!" She reported. "All of our Anti-Air weapons were destroyed in the N2 strike, so we can't shoot any of them down. Be ready!"

"Yes, ma'am." The pilots responded, as small indicators appeared in their field of vision, showing the flight paths of the EVAs.

"I thought father said there would be twelve." Shinji said, confused.

Asuka shrugged. "Idiot, don't look a gift horse in the mouth!" She snapped. "This will just make things easier."

"Yeah, I guess." Shinji replied, unsure.

Moments later, eight winged shapes came descending from the air, and the two ground bound EVAs opened up with pallet rifles. Their preparedness proved a very good thing as one of the Mass Production EVAs fell to the ground from almost half a kilometer up, its wings too shot through with holes to support it. "Yes, we got one!" Asuka exalted, happily.

The second child's happiness was short lived, however, as the EVA she had felled began to rise. To her surprise, it only made it to all fours. "What the hell?" She muttered, as it growled feraly and leapt.

Both of the EVA pilots jumped out of its way, allowing it to slam into the outer shell of NERV HQ, and turned back to it in a synchronized movement, slicing deeply into its back. Unfortunately, the pilots' focus on the one MP EVA had cost them, as two of the others jumped them from behind. Growling and throwing one of them off, Asuka turned swiftly and chopped its head in half. Shinji charged backwards, falling onto his back and crushing the other EVA beneath him, before climbing to his feet.

Looking around, the two looked distinctly nervous as they saw that five more EVAs had landed around them, and they were all holding some form of long pole weapon. "This doesn't look good." Shinji said, anxiously.

"Well thank you, obvious." Asuka replied, as Units 02 and 03 entered a back to back covering position. As if in answer to the two pilots anxiety, the MP EVAs all jumped at them, completely unaware of the blue EVA that had just appeared several hundred meters away until Rei emptied a dozen shells into one of their backs.

HR.

Kaoru looked shocked and slightly queasy as he listened to Keel's plan to use the third impact, along with Lilith's ability to generate an anti-AT field, to create some sort of gestalt hive mind of humanity. This was not only completely counter to the plans that the angels had, but a violation of what most of the human race wanted as well. He'd heard the man's justifications as Ranma had called him out on it, but they rang hollow to him, and evidently to Ranma as well since he didn't look any less angry now than he had a few minutes before.

The problem was that the seventeenth angel wasn't sure that he could oppose Keel's plans. He really didn't know how much will a human being could muster, but if what he'd felt from Unit 01 was any indication, it was a lot. If Keel tried to take control of the third impact in the middle, the angel wasn't sure that he could stop him without driving the process completely out of control.

Still, what other choice was there? Then, an idea struck him. Keel had wanted to use Lilith's anti-AT field. There was another source of anti-AT energy in this room, and he had control over it. "I will not let you corrupt the third impact for your purposes, Chairman." The angel said, serenely.

Both Keel and Ranma turned to face Kaoru, surprised at his interruption. "You can't stop me." Keel said, flatly.

Kaoru merely smiled, glancing over at Ranma. "Saotome-san, will you honor one request?" He asked, simply.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"Tell the other pilots that I said goodbye." Kaoru said, smiling softly. Before anyone could move, he pushed his AT field to its full intensity as quickly as he could. As had been promised, the anklet around his leg flared as well, and he exploded into a shower of orange liquid. He hadn't expected the field to stretch beyond his body and reduce about half of the bodies of his two captors to LCL with him, but he wouldn't have changed his plans if he had known.

Keel raised an eyebrow, wiping a single drop of the LCL that Kaoru had become off of his face. "I did not expect that." He said, turning back to Ranma.

The martial artist was locked into an expression that was half horrified shock and half stunned satisfaction. Kaoru was dead. He had killed himself right in front of Ranma's eyes, but at the same time he had ruined Keel's plans completely. "I… I guess that stops you." He said, in a dry voice. His lunch felt like leaping up his throat, but he stomped it down mercilessly.

Keel merely shook his head, before starting to walk towards Ranma. "You can't be serious." The martial artist said, backing away and circling around slowly as the older man came closer. "I ain't gunna let you cause third impact through me!"

Keel nodded. "I'm sure you're not, or at least you wouldn't normally." He said, conversationally. Pulling out a small device from his pocket, he didn't show his nervousness as he pressed a single red button. If the second assault team had been stopped on their way to the EVA cages, this would not work.

HR.

"Major! There's been an explosion in the EVA cages!" Maya reported, glancing up from her work station.

"What?" Misato asked. "What happened?"

"It was one of those commando teams, they slipped a satchel charge under Unit 01's armor and detonated it!" Maya said, sounding confused.

"Why would they do that?" Misato asked. Most parts on the EVAs were too large for a single hand carried explosive to damage, even without the armor to protect it.

Ritsuko, who had climbed up to the main bridge after ensuring that the Magi were secure, paled. "They didn't…." She breathed. "We should have seen this coming!"

"What?" Misato asked again, very worried due to the panicked look on her friend's face.

"They took out Unit 01's core." Ritsuko breathed, horrified.

The entire room went silent. "Does that mean…" Gendo started, slowly.

"The EVA… is dead, sir." Ritsuko said.

Just as Misato was about to start cursing up a storm, she heard something that snapped her attention around to yet another problem. "Shinji!"

Whipping her head towards the main screen, she blinked as she saw Unit 03 falling backwards, a familiar looking two pronged lance sticking out of its front.

"They replicated the lance." Gendo said, slowly.

HR.

"Wh… what did you do?" Ranma asked, as a sudden intense pain ripped through his body. It felt like someone had just started crushing his heart, literally, and wouldn't let go.

"I took advantage of the connection you hold to EVA unit 01." Keel explained. "You share one body, and one mind."

"I… don't understand." Ranma gasped, sinking to his knees as the pain began to get worse at an exponential rate. Only his years of martial arts kept him from crying out incoherently.

"If you haven't figured it out, I will not tell you." Keel said, simply, before stalking closer to the martial artist again. "But while you are so incapacitated with pain, I believe that I will take advantage."

"N….no." Ranma gasped, reaching out one arm to try and ward off the man, even while knowing that simply touching him would initiate the situation he wanted. The pigtailed pilot projected a wavering AT field, distantly noticing that it wasn't his usual blue, but the sickly orange of any normal angel. "I… won't…."

"It's too late, I'm afraid." Keel responded, brushing aside the weak AT field easily with his angelic hand. "You're even starting to lose your form." It was true. The third child's body seemed to be gradually melting towards the floor, small rivers of LCL running out of it as the pain built to such a level that even his subconscious, the part of him that was maintaining this form, couldn't stand up against it. "Now, just stay still."

"Like…. Hell!" The EVA pilot exclaimed, raising one arm even as it began to distend and bend sickeningly. Concentrating on its malleability and using it, he shaped it into a sharp edge. He couldn't touch Keel with it, but it didn't matter. Bringing the arm down in a swift strike that completely missed his opponent, he produced a blade of air. It was the last coherent thing he did before collapsing in a writhing, flailing ball of pain, but it had been enough.

Keel didn't even have the time to scream, as his body separated into two pieces on a diagonal, the upper part slumping to the platform as the lower fell backwards into the LCL behind it.

HR.

Rei Ayanami flinched violently, as she suddenly felt that something was very wrong. Well, a lot of things were very wrong at the moment. Two of the MP EVAs had been put down for the count, one through the use of the last remaining anti-AT battery in the city and the other through skillful teamwork by Shinji and Asuka, but the six remaining units had done significant damage, and one of them seemed to have some form of energy claws and far too good reflexes for her liking. Jerking to the side, she just barely got out of the way of one of the reproduction lances they were using. That was also a problem.

"Rei." Gendo said, his voice over the comm. Link seeming very serious.

"Yes, commander?" The first child asked, wanting to ask if something had gone wrong inside the base so badly, but holding the question back.

"Retrieve the lance." He ordered. Those three words surprised the blue haired girl, but she instantly went into action, charging back towards NERV HQ.

"Where are you going, Rei?" Asuka demanded angrily, as she slashed at the torso of another MP EVA in order to hit its core.

"I am going to retrieve a weapon that will assist us." The other girl said, flatly, before boarding a retrieval elevator. This particular elevator would not return her to the EVA cages, but bring her down a shaft that the seventeenth angel had tried to invade weeks earlier, straight to Terminal Dogma.

The ride was quite fast, since it was imperative that she return to battle quickly, and she gulped down a feeling of nausea as she reached the bottom. Walking quickly into the room at the end of the long hall, her sense of unease grew larger, until she saw the bodies. They wouldn't really have effected her, if two of them hadn't looked like they'd been half vaporized. Scanning the floor further, the girl gasped at the sight of a set of red and black clothing. Without hesitation, the first child punched the manual release on the EVA's entry plug. She would normally have worried about the fifty meter drop to the ground, but somehow she knew that she could survive it, using her AT field to slow her descent.

She was sure that NERV's command staff was going ballistic at the moment, but didn't care. Running up to the crumpled mass of red and black, she saw it twitch. Quietly, she crept forward, only to see what looked like a deformed mass of flesh quivering in the middle of the pile. "What is…" She started, before a face, screaming in agony briefly formed. She recoiled in shock as she recognized the features. "Ranma…?" She asked, right before the mass dissolved completely into LCL. At that moment, somehow, she knew that Ranma Saotome had died.

She began to tremble, and her red aura manifested around her. "No, no, no, no, no, no." She repeated. "This… cannot happen." She remembered the times he had been taken away, only to return. She had always felt that he would, no matter what doubts nagged. Now though, He was gone. She could feel it as surely as she could feel the ground under her feet, and her hands now that she'd sank to her knees. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

The first child's eyes rose from Ranma's body, fixing on something else. It was Keel's upper half, laying on the ground with the lump of flesh that was Adam still attached. She would not let this happen.

She knew that Commander Ikari had wanted to bring about the third impact to bring his wife back from the abyss. After all, he had told her enough times. She wasn't sure how he'd intended to do it, but right now she didn't care. Reaching out, the half-angel came into contact with ADAM, and power rushed through her body.

Yes, she felt it. It was a power build-up so intense that it was almost orgasmic, and it was all under her control. Gendo's plan had called for combining ADAM with Lilith, but she didn't need that, she knew it. "I will not feel this pain again!" She screamed, as a column of white energy burst out from her body, slamming through the armored layers of NERV HQ, and vaporizing Central Dogma almost instantly.

Inside of their EVAs, Shinji and Asuka gaped in wonder as a massive white cross seemed to form in the air over the Geofront. "It's happened." The fourth child whispered, horrified. The MP EVAs were descending on his and Asuka's EVAs, but he didn't care. The weight of failure settled in his stomach like lead. "We… failed." As he said that, the world dissolved into a white flash yet again.

END

Well, there. No, this is not the final chapter. Yes, I am aware of how many of you want to kill me right now.

There are, however, a select few who view a happy ending in EVA as an affront to the series. To them, I leave this. The next chapter will look up, though I imagine you can't imagine how right now. If this ending pleases you, and some of you It may, then do not read any further.

For the rest, don't worry. This fic is not over yet, and contains two more chapters. If you must do me grievous bodily harm, fine, but if you kill me, the fic will be left like this forever. Thank you, and good night.

* * *

**Chapter 51: Chapter 51 End of AOL, Part IV**

* * *

Okay, everyone. Here's chapter 51, enjoy.

Chapter 51, End of Angel Of Light, Part IV.

Kaji frowned as he shook the monitor of the computer he was using. Still, it didn't clear the image. He hadn't expected it to, but it was the only thing he could do. Inside of the main tent in the camp at Matsushiro, the double agent cursed. The link to NERV had just gone dead, and that meant one of two things. One, the third impact was being initiated, and he had minutes at most to live. Two, SEELE had managed to cut off all outside communications links, which was almost as dire.

For the hundredth time, the man cursed himself for allowing Commander Ikari to order him away with the people who had evacuated the Geofront. He should be there, watching out for Misato. For some reason, being engaged to the woman made him feel a hell of a lot more responsible for her safety. "If the world isn't ending, and she's dead, so help me…" He muttered, fishing a small thumb stick from his pocket. He had been handed it two weeks before, before he'd left Tokyo 3, by the commander.

He'd considered looking into it, but had been given very strict instructions, and for once actually followed them. Slipping the drive into the computer in front of him, he disconnected from the Magi and logged on to a much more extensive, world spanning network. The United Nations' intelligence net. As he looked over the files on the thumb stick, his mouth went dry. It contained what must have been every bit of Data Gendo had managed to assemble on SEELE, and didn't cast the man himself in a very good light.

Remembering the desperate battle he'd seen on the Magi feed previously, the man wondered if what he was about to do would really matter, but shrugged as he hit the transmit button, dumping the data to the intelligence heads, presidents, press secretaries and dozens of other high officials of every major country on the planet. About a quarter of those would be in SEELE's pocket, but not nearly enough. Smiling in satisfaction at the blow he had dealt, however small and pointless, the brown haired man stood and exited the tent.

He saw that all of the technicians and scientists were gaping up at the sky, and turned to see what they were looking at. It was rather obvious, actually. There was an immense glow radiating from Tokyo 3's direction, and what looked like a tiny cross etched in white light. 'It looks like Misato's.' He thought, before running for his car. He didn't know what that light was, but the battle had started, he'd done his job, and he had no obligation to stay here. "You can go now!" He shouted, turning back to the civilians for a moment before returning his eyes forward, running up to his car and throwing open the door. "I'm coming." He said, taking off in a squeal of tires that would have made Misato green with envy.

HR.

In the middle of the storm that was Adam's released energy, Rei felt on top of the world. It took a great deal of concentration to maintain her control, but while she did so, the power responded instantly to her will. That had been how she'd restricted what would normally have been a planet shattering explosion to a beam less than a kilometer across. Turning her attention inward, she began to use this power to accomplish the one goal she most wanted. She looked through the myriad of minds and souls that had been trapped within NERV HQ when it had gone up, discarding some, the invaders who had been trying to kill her, Ranma and everyone else, and reconstituting others outside of the field. 'Where is he?' She thought, continuing to dig through the mass of confusion.

Lieutenant Aoba, Major Katsuragi, Dr. Akagi, one by one the members of NERV's command staff and their subordinates found themselves standing on the outskirts of the beam of blinding light and energy, blinking in confusion.

HR.

Inside of one of the two EVA units that were standing nearby, Shinji Ikari was just gaping. This was a bad thing, as there were still six Mass Production EVAs in the area.

"Look out, Shinji!" Asuka called, throwing herself against the other EVA unit and propelling them both out of the way of a copy lance. When the lance entered the beam of energy, a flare came tearing out of it, reducing the MP EVA into a cloud of gory dust. "Shiest!" The girl breathed, unbelieving of what she'd just seen, as she pulled herself up to her feet. Looking to the side, she noted that there were only three minutes on her EVA's power timer. "Come on, Shinji. We've got to finish the rest of these things."

"But… it's over, don't you see that?" The fourth child asked, semi-hysterically.

"It isn't over, and it won't be until I can't move anymore!" Asuka replied. "Now are you going to help me, or not?"

"I…" Shinji started. "Yeah, I'll help."

HR.

"Ritsuko, what the hell is going on here?" Misato announced, looking around her current location. Ritsuko simply shook her head, unsure, as more and more people seemed to immerge from the wall of white that was towering behind them. "Is this the third impact?" The major asked.

"Yes." Commander Ikari said, simply, from behind the two of them. "But I never believed that it could be controlled so completely, guided so well."

"What do you mean?" The dark haired woman demanded. "It's the end of the damned world!"

Gendo shook his head. "I… am not sure about that." He commented as he turned and gazed up at the beam of light, the reflections from it causing his glasses to appear to glow. 'Is this what Keel wanted? No, that doesn't make any sense.' He thought. 'Then who?'

HR.

Rei cried out as something intruded into the column of power she was enfolded in, and her distraction caused a tiny fragment of it to go out of her control, lashing out at whatever had disturbed the surface of her containment. What ever it was, she was sure that it had been vaporized, but that was not important at the moment.

She had found it. She had found what she was sure was the soul of Ranma, but there was a problem. The more normal, human soul was heavily entangled in what appeared to be the essence of an angel, similar to her own. She knew that Ranma had originally, at some time long ago, been fully human. He had told her what Keel had told him about his past, so she was relatively sure that this was Ranma's.

Carefully, so as not to cause damage to the one she loved, the being that was Rei worked her energies to separate the two beings' souls, sending the angelic one floating back into the maelstrom for later consideration as she reformed the human one. To her shock, the being that emerged was definitely not Ranma.

HR.

"What?" Ritsuko choked, pointing shakily at the wall of white, where yet another person was exiting from it. Everyone else turned, only to see a woman, about five foot four, with short brown hair step out. Unlike the rest of them, who had been wearing the clothes they had worn before, this woman was as naked as the day she was born, but didn't seem to notice.

"That…" Gendo said, unbelieving, before his expression turned angry. "Saotome, this joke is not appreciated, especially in a time like this." He snapped, glaring.

"It isn't a joke, Gendo." The woman said, flatly. "And 'Saotome' isn't holding me back any longer."

"What?" They all asked, just before the woman let out a right hook straight into Gendo's jaw, causing him to stagger back a few feet.

"THAT was for our son." She said, her own glare aimed at him.

"Yui…" He asked, his breath catching in his throat. She smiled, and walked up to him, rubbing her fist.

"Having lived for several weeks sharing a mind with Ranma-Kun has apparently rubbed off on me." She said, before cupping his chin. "But… this, is for finally realizing what needed to be done." Leaning in, the woman planted a kiss on the older man's cheek.

"You… you're alive." Gendo said, a smile growing on his face as she leaned back again. "You're alive, you're back… This…" He rubbed his sore jaw cautiously. "Is not a dream."

"Erm, Dr. Ikari?" Ritsuko hazarded, not wanting to get involved but feeling that she had to. "Perhaps you should take this?" Removing her Lab Coat to reveal the blue wetsuit and black skirt beneath, she proffered it to the brown haired woman.

"Hmm?" Yui asked, before a draft blew across her legs. Looking down, she turned bright red and quickly snatched the coat. "Thank you, Dr. Akagi." She said, trying to keep her composure.

Unfortunately for the shocked Gendo and embarrassed Yui, the world wasn't on hold for this reunion, and it brutally reminded every one of the NERV employees of this when an Evangelion Unit landed only a few meters away from the gathering.

"Oh no, Shinji and Asuka!" Misato exclaimed, as Unit 03 hauled itself back up to its feet.

"We can't help them now." Aoba said, practically, gesturing around the baron crater that had once been the Geofront. "No equipment."

"We can at least get out of their way." Misato decided. "We'll figure out what's going on later. Until then, let's move!"

Everyone nodded, including Gendo and Yui, as they all quickly started heading for relative safety.

HR.

He floated in the darkness, relieved of the torturous pain that had been part of him for the past few minutes. This, he thought, was incredibly relaxing. He could lay here, unsleeping, unmoving, for a very long time… but…

What had happened to everyone else? He was reasonably sure that he had killed Keel, but what if the third impact had happened somehow? As these thoughts, and therefore the worries associated with them, passed through his mind, Ranma Saotome began to panic. The top thing on his mind, however, was "Is Rei all right?"

Oddly, the thought of Shinji's safety had drifted down on his list of priorities. Oh, he was still worried about him, as well as Asuka, Misato, and even Pen Pen, but it wasn't the overpowering worry that he'd experienced ever since shortly after starting to pilot Unit 01.

Come to think of it, there was something… different… about him at the moment, though he couldn't put his finger on it. As he floated, thinking, he heard something.

"Ranma, where are you?" Came a soft whisper, echoing through the void.

He perked up, looking around as best he could, but all was black. "Rei?" He called, though his voice couldn't be heard in his own ears.

Still Rei could apparently hear it. "You are here!" She exclaimed, happily. "I am coming."

He waited for a few more seconds, before some light abruptly illuminated the darkness, and he saw what looked like an almost ethereal, ghostly Rei floating towards him. "What's going on?" He asked, confused.

"It is all right." She said. "It will all be all right soon." Ranma wasn't sure why, but that was immensely reassuring, even as he felt himself moving forward rapidly. Abruptly, his vision flashed brightly white, and he found himself sitting in the entry plug of Unit 01, which was standing in the middle of some huge crater. "What…?" He asked.

"Engelkind? Where did you come from?" Came Asuka's voice, as her face sprang up on Unit 01's screen. "Aw, it doesn't matter. You wanna help out here?"

"Yeah…" Ranma said, confused. He was about to ask what they needed help with, until he saw some of the Mass Production EVAs that Gendo had briefed everyone about running towards Shinji and Asuka's units. "Wait a second." He said, though he was already moving Unit 01 forward. "Where's Rei?"

HR.

It had all been completed. All of NERV's staff had been removed from the chaotic mass of energy that was the third impact, and even Ranma had been pulled out, with EVA Unit 01, connected to him integrally as it was, as a bonus. Now, however, Rei Ayanami had a problem. She had used maybe one-one-hundredth of Adam's full power, and the rest was eagerly crackling away, waiting to do something.

She couldn't just release it, as it would level Japan, and most likely most of the eastern hemisphere, but she couldn't hold it for much longer. Without the focus of her determination, she was finding her concentration wavering. She had to do something, and she had to do it now.

She couldn't take her attention off of her task to see what was around her, but she knew that releasing even a fraction of the power horizontally would cause an incredible amount of collateral damage. That, of course, meant that it all had to go up. Molding some of the energy into a strong AT field to prevent the rest from going in any direction other than the one she wanted, the first child removed the blocks that were keeping the energy at bay, sending it shooting into the sky in a massive beam.

HR.

Driving down a highway that linked Matsushiro to Tokyo 3 at truly insanely fast speeds, Kaji looked forward, his eyes fixed on the cross shaped beacon that drew him onward.

He was pretty sure that it couldn't have been the initiation of third impact, or there would have been more signs by now. Just as he thought that, the top of the cross seemed to extend into the air, shooting up through the outer atmosphere and letting out a shockwave in the grey cloud cover that had moved in over the city.

Cursing, he tried to press the car's peddle even further towards the floor, but was stopped by the fact that there wasn't any more space.

HR.

"Shinji, Asuka, be careful of that one." Ranma said, as Unit 01's progressive knife speared the core of an MP EVA that the other two had been working on for a few seconds.

"Which one, and why?" Shinji asked, curiously.

"The one on all fours. It's acting… strange." Ranma replied, unsure what about the white beast was disconcerting him so much.

"Yeah, we noticed." Asuka shot back. "It's somehow manifesting these claws out of its AT field, cut one of my shoulder pylons off."

"Claws?" Ranma asked, his eyes narrowing. "Neko-ken." He finally realized, though he didn't know for the life of him HOW an EVA could be trained in the art. Last time he'd checked, there weren't any cats that large.

"Neko-what?" Asuka asked.

"Don't worry. I'll take that one if you can get the other four." He responded. He knew full well what the Neko-ken could do, and didn't want either of the other pilots anywhere near that EVA. "Well, that psychologist I met a while back told me to face my fears." He muttered, marshaling his Chi and charging.

As he did so, both Shinji and Asuka faced two EVAs of their own, only a bit over a minute left on their power counters. "Think we can do this?" Shinji asked.

"Of course." Asuka replied, removing her Prog Knife from its slot. "Remember; hit them hard and fast, only 30 seconds each."

"Right." Shinji said, as the two EVAs went into motion.

The MP EVAs were almost all copies of the same mental pattern. That pattern being that of Kaoru Nagisa. As a result, even in their animalistic states, they were all reasonably similar. This proved to be a very substantial disadvantage as the two NERV EVAs laid into them in synchronized motion.

As the light of the diverted third impact kept shining into the air, the red and black EVAs fought fiercely against the white, countering every blow and delivering devastating attacks of their own. One stripped away some of the white EVAs' armor, the one thing they couldn't regenerate, while the next scored deep cuts into their flesh, searching for their elusive cores. About twenty five seconds into the battle, the first MP EVAs fell, Asuka losing her progressive knife to hers as it consumed it in its final thrashing explosion.

This was when the two pilots' individual fighting skills took over. Shinji still had his knife, and was moving in a similar way to that he had been using before, but Asuka was engaging in a fast series of punches, grapples and tosses that may have even impressed Ranma. Shinji's second fell first, since he had the more effective weapon for destroying a core. Charging across the wrecked crater of the Geofront to help the German pilot, he pulled back his knife as his power counter hit 5, letting it fly on an arc that ended in the MP EVA's body, just as the shrill beep of complete shutdown echoed through his ears. Unnoticed to any of the pilots, the pillar of energy that had been rising from Terminal Dogma flickered at this same moment, dieing away into the night as the rumbling crash of two falling EVA units did the same.

HR.

In another part of the crater, Ranma was reconsidering his decision to face the EVA that appeared to know the Neko-ken. Now, he knew that it knew the Neko-ken, and it was both very hard to hit and very good at causing damage. He had a deep gash along one arm, as well as several smaller cuts all over.

To make matters worse, he STILL didn't know where Rei was. Growling in annoyance, he lashed out with his Prog Knife again, expecting the cat like EVA to dodge his blow. To his surprise, it didn't, and he sunk his blade into its core. Unfortunately, its last attack was still coming, an AT powered claw strike that had a good chance of taking off his head. Wincing, he realized that he couldn't put up his AT field in time to do any good. Several seconds later, he wondered why he wasn't dead, or at least in a lot of pain from Unit 01 having its head cut off.

Looking down, he saw the answer. There was an AT field in front of him… and it was red. "Rei?" He asked, tilting Unit 01's head and looking around. Sure enough, the first child was there, standing on top of Unit 03's downed form, her white and blue plugsuit stark against the EVA's black armor.

Quickly, the pigtailed boy pulled Unit 01's plug release, climbing and clambering down the side of the giant biomecha until he made his way to the ground. "Rei!" He called, running towards the blue haired girl.

She didn't respond, merely jumping off of the EVA and using some technique to float to the ground before running to meet him. As the two embraced, the pilots of the other two EVAs slowly approached, from the now ejected entry plugs of their downed units.

"It's over." Rei said, relaxing in Ranma's arms.

"Yeah, it's over." Ranma said.

Shinji and Asuka stayed silent, but the brown haired boy reached out and grabbed the red haired girl's hand. She didn't object.

As if to ruin the perfect scene that was unfolding, the rain clouds that had been building over the city ever since shortly after the MP EVAs had arrived finally decided to release their contents. Ranma shifted, surprised to find herself a couple inches shorter than she expected, and looked up at Rei with a sheepish look half hidden by the red hair that had fallen into her eyes.

Rei simply smiled, continuing to hug the one she loved and leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her lips. The four pilots stayed in that general position for a few minutes, looking out at the remnants of NERV HQ in a relaxed, yet also slightly shocked silence, almost unable to come to grips with the fact that things were, all of a sudden, over.

The silence was broken, however, when a person cleared their throat loudly from behind them. "We're not interrupting something, are we?" Misato asked, the four children turning to her, surprised. She stood in the front of a massive group, holding Pen Pen under One arm and Kaji's hand in her other. Next to her, another woman in one of Dr. Akagi's lab coats stepped forward, walking right past Ranma and Rei in order to throw her arms around Shinji.

The fourth child stood there, stiff as a board, unsure how to react while Asuka's eyebrow started to twitch.

"Who the hell are you?" The second child demanded, glaring holes in the older brown haired woman.

The older woman looked away from her embrace with Shinji for a moment, smiling at the redhead. "Don't worry; I'm not going to steal your boyfriend. I'm his mother." She said, simply.

"He's NOT my boyfriend!" Asuka thundered, while Shinji's face grew a look of shock.

"M… mom?" The boy asked, disbelieving.

Yui Ikari simply smiled back down at him. "I missed you."

"Come on everybody, there're still some places outside of the city proper that were shielded from the N2 blast." Misato said, hating to interrupt Shinji's moment with his mother, but also not wanting any of her pilots freezing to death.

Everyone reluctantly nodded, before they left the wreckage of Tokyo 3 behind, headed for a hopefully much brighter future.

END.

Wow, that ending was... waffy, wasn't it? :D

Well, don't forget to R&R, 'cuz the epilogue should be out soon.

* * *

**Chapter 52: Epilogue, To the End**

* * *

Well, the final chapter. My muse put up one hell of a fight while I was trying to get this written, so I hope it's good, though I wouldn't bet the house on it. :)

Special Thanks to Deitarion for being my emergency editor on this one.

Epilogue. To The End.

"Hey, Shinji!" The voice came through his door, its annoyance clearly audible even through the hard wood. The form that was curled up in the small bed under the room's only window tried to ignore the sound, snuggling into his covers. "Hey, can you hear me? I said wake UP!" The voice called again, banging more loudly this time.

Shinji Ikari sighed, removing his head from its comfortable resting place in the warm darkness and gazing blearily at the door. As he did so, memory started to trickle in, and he threw off the rest of the covers. "I'm up, all right!" He called, as he heard the voice on the other side of the door revving up for a first class swearing fit.

"Good. Your mom says that breakfast's ready." The voice, who he now identified as Asuka, snapped before her footsteps could be heard going away from the door.

'Who's bright idea was it to have her stay with us, anyways?' He wondered, but smiled. Truth be told, if Asuka left he'd miss her, especially since Misato and Kaji were on their honeymoon. His mind drifted to Ranma and Rei for a moment, but he shook that thought off. After slipping on his usual white dress shirt and dark pants, the boy exited his room, entering the main hall of the apartment that he and his family had been assigned in Tokyo-2.

Entering the living room, so similar to that of Misato's place, the fourth child couldn't help but marvel, once again, at the sight that he saw there. His father, still as hard as ever but somehow seeming… different, was sitting at a desk in the corner, reading over a bunch of papers. "Hello, father." The boy said, as he passed him and entered the kitchen.

Even after over two weeks of similar events, it still surprised Shinji that the older man mumbled a quiet "Good morning" in return as he passed.

"It's about time you got moving." Asuka said, snidely, as she sat at the table. She had a half plate of food in front of her.

"I couldn't sleep last night." Shinji muttered, slumping into a seat across from her.

"Worried about what's happening today?" Came a different female voice, as an older brown haired woman walked into the room, holding a cup of coffee.

Shinji wasn't sure what part of today his mother was referring to. This was the day when a lot of things happened. For one, he and Asuka were going to go back to school, which was why she'd been so impatient to get him up. Looking back to the living room, he saw that his father was still busily preparing for the second big event of today, though now he was periodically sipping from a cup of something that Yui must have given him.

"Don't worry, everything's going to go fine." Yui said, resting a comforting hand on her son's shoulder.

Asuka snorted. "Unless he gets punched in the jaw again this time." She snickered.

Shinji just nodded, soon digging into the meal his mother placed in front of him.

HR.

"This is driving me insane." Asuka said, breaking the silence that had held between the two companions as they walked to school. Shinji just looked at her, not saying anything and waiting for her to continue. He'd seen that she'd been getting more agitated over the past week, and had expected an outburst eventually.

"Look, Shinji, doesn't it bother you that we fought a huge army of UN Troops three weeks ago, and now we're going to school like nothing ever happened?" She shook her head. "I… I don't know, this feels wrong!"

"Well, what else was supposed to happen? We defeated the angels, it's over." Shinji said, shrugging.

Asuka growled. "Our EVAs are being held and studied by the government." She shuddered. "I don't want to THINK of what they're doing to Unit 02, and what about Ranma and Rei? We haven't seen either of them since…"

"I know." Shinji said, softly. "But there's not much we can do about it, is there? Asuka, it's over for us. I know it's hard to figure out, I mean, hell, I see the mother I thought was dead for ten years every day, but… Look, father's trying to get Rei and Ranma released, and we can finally live some form of normal life. Can't you be happy about that?"

"You and your normal life, I…" Asuka started, glaring over at Shinji. Unfortunately, her lack of attention cost her as she plowed into someone who was just rounding a corner. "Oh, would you watch where you're going?" She demanded, picking herself up off of the ground with Shinji's assistance.

"I apologize, Asuka-san." Came a cool, only slightly inflected voice that the redhead recognized. She quickly snapped her eyes up, seeing a familiar blue haired face staring impassively back at her. "Rei?" She asked, confused.

"Hello." Rei said, simply.

"Where… wha?" The redhead asked, blinking at her.

"I am going to school. Can I accompany you?" The blue haired girl asked, looking over at Shinji for an answer since Asuka's mouth was still hanging open.

"Erm, sure." The fourth child said. "And we should probably get going. We're going to be late."

Rei nodded, and the two started walking quickly away. After regaining her whits, Asuka quickly tagged after them, mumbling something rather rude in irritation.

"So, when did they let you go, Rei?" The second child asked. "And why?"

"The military finally believes my statements that I cannot cause third impact at will." Rei replied, actually sounding annoyed. "It took them a large amount of tests that told them almost nothing to come to that conclusion, though."

"So, the government's been holding you?" Shinji asked, surprised. At Rei's nod, he frowned. "But if they let you go… where's Ranma?"

Rei's face darkened. "They appear to believe that Unit 01 still poses a threat, and due to Ranma's connection to the Unit they are holding him for an indefinite period."

Shinji was just about to ask more, but the three of them had just entered the school yard. "I guess talking about classified NERV business in a public school yard isn't a good idea." He muttered, evoking a nod from both Rei and Asuka, though the German did so reluctantly.

HR.

In a large, wood paneled room in Tokyo-2's "New Diet Building," Gendo Ikari sat behind a small desk, an impassive look on his face. In front of him stood another man, who was just nearing the end of his speech. "…and child abuse. The 'SEELE council' and its underlings have all been brought up on charges, but we neglect the one man who, on his own, is most responsible for the near destruction of mankind. Thank you, sirs." The man bowed, sitting down at a desk on the other side of the room.

The group of three men who sat on an elevated platform in the front of the room looked at each other for a moment, before the one in the center spoke. "Mr. Ikari, you chose to represent yourself in this matter, as previously mentioned. All of the facts have been reviewed, what is your closing argument?"

Gendo stood, one hand clenched into a fist at his side the only thing that betrayed that he was at all anxious. "The angels were a real threat." He said, simply. "If they'd gone unchecked, even without Adam and Lilith to bond to, they would have destroyed this planet within years. Given that I did NOT know of the Anti-AT weaponry that SEELE had developed, I felt that the Evangelion Units were our only hope of survival. The pilots of these units MUST be children, and Jet Alone was taking valuable funding that we needed to reclaim, or NERV would have been forced to shut down. In short, I did what I had to do." He said, simply.

The statement wasn't the most elegant, and he had intended it that way. He'd given the reasoning he'd followed, and merely that. There would be no clever misdirection of blame, or legal maneuverings. He wanted to be weighed on what he had done versus what he had saved. His mouth turned up a little. It was only fitting, after all.

HR.

Several minutes later, Gendo waited outside of the courtroom while the judges deliberated, Yui standing next to him. "I'm curious." He said. "I… asked you to pretend, until this time, that I hadn't done all of the thins I have, to give me some time before I'm jailed… why did you agree?"

Yui smiled back at him. "I think you know the answer." She said, evenly.

Gendo smiled, and for the first time in a very long time, it looked like his face was made for the expression. "Thank you." He said, softly.

"Mr. Ikari, you are to return to the courtroom." A young military officer, who had been watching him, said after receiving a message on the small communication ear piece he wore.

Gendo nodded, squared his shoulders and marched back into the room.

HR.

The door opened, throwing a beam of light over the form inside of the small cell. A shadow fell across the floor as a lab coat wearing woman walked in. "Oh my god! what on earth happened to you?" Dr. Ritsuko Akagi gasped, as she saw the form that lay on the small bed in the corner of the room.

For the most part, he looked as healthy as he ever had. That was, of course, other than the few deep cuts, and what seemed like tiny pin holes, that were scattered across his one arm, part of his chest and his head.

He snorted. "They just kept poking." He muttered, sourly.

Ritsuko growled. "Bastards." She muttered, taking some bandage material out from a bag she'd brought in with her. "It took them this long to get tired of poking at the EVAs and call me in to explain things." She continued talking, insulting the parentage of several of the JSDF's best scientists as she worked.

Ranma smiled. "Gee, thanks doc. That mean you'll be the one poking at me from now on?"

"No, that means that I'm going to tell them that you can't possibly affect the EVA without being inside its entry plug, and that poking it may cause it to go berserk." She smirked.

"But that's not…" Ranma started, before being quieted by an upraised hand.

"I know that, and you know that, but do THEY know that?" The doctor asked. If she had to lie to someone, at least it was to help rather than hurt. "Just promise you won't make Unit 01 destroy Tokyo-2, and we're even, all right?"

"You've got a deal." Ranma confirmed.

HR.

"Miss Ayanami, pay attention!" Rei's head jerked away from the window, and she felt her cheeks heating slightly. "Now, as I was saying, when did Canada become the fifty-second state in the United States of America?"

"They didn't. Canada is still its own nation." Rei mumbled, annoyed that she'd been taken from her train of thought.

The teacher nodded. "Good, well you have been paying some attention. That idiot in Tokyo-3, most of you don't even know what the People's Liberation Army of China is. Keep mentioning second impact." He muttered, before shaking his head clear. "Anyways, as I was saying, the…""

Returning her gaze to the window, the first child wondered why things had to be so complicated. Three weeks ago, when the third impact had been averted and they'd all been standing in the rain, things had seemed so simple. Now, though… She frowned.

All she'd wanted then, and all she wanted now, was to spend the rest of her life exploring the feelings she'd uncovered, preferably with Ranma by her side. Unfortunately, he was still locked up wherever they'd locked him up.

"Rei?" Shinji asked, interrupting her contemplation again.

"Yes?" She asked, looking over towards him.

"Class is over." He said, quickly. "Aren't you coming?"

"Oh, yes." Rei replied, getting up. It was the last class of the day, which meant that she could go home… to the small apartment she'd been provided by the military, alone. "Shinji-san?" She asked, "Can I accompany you home?"

"Erm, yeah, sure if you want." The fourth child said, confused. "I've got to go meet up with Asuka, though.

Rei nodded. "I'll wait at the front gate." She said, before exiting the room.

HR.

Several minutes later Rei stood at the front gate to the school, waiting for Shinji and Asuka. Looking out at the city in front of her, she smiled slightly. Ranma was missing, yes, but he would be released eventually, and they, all of them, had saved the world.

"Hey, Rei." She heard, and looked around in confusion. "I'm over here." The voice came again, as a familiar figure in what looked like an over-sized NERV Uniform walked up.

"Ranma?" She asked, taking a few steps towards him. He smiled, though she saw that he had bandages covering his right eye, and a bumpy section under his uniform shirt showed that there were bandages on the left arm, too.

"They let me out." He said, cheerfully.

Rei didn't say anything, merely running up and hugging him.

END.

Removed latter half of Epilogue. It was bad, and it should feel bad. Fanfic feels a bit too abrupt this way, but it is an ending, sort of.


End file.
